“I want it. I need it. When can I have it?” That was Verizon Wireless’s marketing pitch for the Kin One and Kin Two phones unveiled last month by Microsoft, and on Wednesday the software giant provided the answer.
The two models built by Sharp, equipped with touchscreens and sliding keyboards and geared toward younger social media addicts, will begin shipping from online orders on May 6 and roll out to stores operated by their exclusive carrier, Verizon Wireless, a week later. Vodafone, Verizon Communications’ partner in Verizon Wireless, will distribute the phones in Europe.
Kin One, with 4 GB of memory and a five megapixel camera, will sell for $149 before a $100 gift-card rebate with a two-year plan, while the Kin Two, with 8 GB of storage and an 8 megapixel camera, will carry a $199 price tag, with the same rebate offer. The phones will require both a Nationwide Talk plan, starting at $39.99 a month and a data plan for browser and email, starting at $29.99 a month.
“Anything under $100 is considered a value play given the specs and features these device employ, especially with the generous memory space of 4G and 8G internal memory,” said J.D. Power and Associates wireless analyst Kirk Parsons.
Though lacking apps and games, the appeal of the two phones is in near-instant sharing of photos, videos, links and updates through an icon called the Kin Spot, which then prompts the user for contacts. The Kin Loop keeps track of all the latest tidbits from the user’s most frequent contacts. They also ship with the Zune digital media player. The phones use a hybrid version of Microsoft’s Windows Phone Series 7 and a revamped version of the Danger system that Microsoft acquired in 2008,
Designed specifically for people who are actively…