As previous rumors had suggested, the Kin One and the Kin Two are again part of the Verizon catalog. However, it is not yet clear if Verizon is giving a second chance to the Kin or if the company is only trying to get rid of the units that are available at its stores. Anyway, the truth is the Microsoft Kin is back.
The two new Kin phones have an additional “m” as part of their names and, apparently, the prices have been modified in an interesting way. The Kin One costs $20 with a two-year contract and the Kin Two costs $50 but is offered as part of a “buy one get one free” deal (the free phone is the LG Ally). The most important thing is that the Kin phones don’t require a data plan (or Internet plan) if you want to buy one. However, the available plans are starting as low as $40 for voice and $10 for a 25MB data plan (or $15 per month for 150MB). There is also an expensive $35 activation fee.
Initially, both phones required Internet plans (the Kin One had an initial price of $50 plus a data plan for $70), which was considered excessive for phones that are mainly targeted towards teenagers. The Zune Pass service is still present in both cases but only through Wi-Fi connections. Anyway, it is a good thing Verizon is finally realizing this type of phones should be sold with minimum requirements, especially when talking about money.
At this time, The Microsoft Kin is still considered one of the biggest failures this year, since it was taken off from the mobile market, after only three months of the launch. Actually, we are not very optimistic about the future of this line of mobile phones, even if Verizon has made some improvements to propitiate a second chance. We’ll see.
After all, the Windows Phone could be a better option and, usually, teenagers prefer to use smartphones with a wider range of features instead of mobile devices for a specific purpose.
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