Today, at a press event in San Francisco, Microsoft launched two mobile phones which run a specialised, social media-oriented version of Windows Phone. The devices are aimed at the social generation of teens and twentysomethings (I shall burn in hell for writing that), and while they do not appeal to me (and you, I take it) in any way, shape, or form, they do sport an immensely interesting user interface.
Called the Kin One and Kin Two, the devices are the successors to Danger’s Sidekick mobile phones and messaging devices; Microsoft bought Danger in 2008. Like the Sidekicks, the Kins are built by Sharp, with the software coming courtesy of Microsoft. Carriers will be Verizon in the US, and Vodafone everywhere else.
To throw my cards on the table hard enough to slice open a coconut: this stuff isn’t for me, and I have the sneaking suspicion they aren’t for any OSNews reader either. These things are aimed at people who – how can I put this delicately – derive their sense of self-worth from the amount of “friends” they have on Facebook and how many followers they have on Twitter. I’m not judging – some of my friends are like that and they ain’t all bad. They’re just a bit… Preoccupied, if you know what I mean.
You cannot install applications on these phones, local storage is small (everything is synced to the internet), and overall, they feel more like feature phones than smartphones – which is probably the point. This will likely keep them relatively cheap as well, so that teenagers can buy these Kin phones too.
That being said however, I do have to commend Microsoft for what they’ve come up with. The interface is elegant and beautiful, and built around two concepts: the Loop and the Spot. The Loop is like the tiled home screen on Windows Phone 7, and holds the information you want – people you care about, stuff like that (it’s not entirely clear to me, though, how it works).
The Spot is a UI concept and element that I really liked. It’s a green drop zone that sits at the bottom of the screen at all times, and you can drag the stuff you want to share onto that spot as well as the people you want to share it with. This can be other people’s status updates, web pages, photos, videos, whatever you want. It’s a sort of universal share dropbox (Courier screen hinge, anyone?).
Speaking of photos and videos – Microsoft really emphasized the quality of the cameras on both devices (4MP for the One, 8 for the Two), and that seems like a good point to focus on; if I’ve learned one thing from my time with the sort of people these devices are aimed it, it’s that they like to take photos. Of everything.
Since these phones are synced to the internet (I refuse to use the word “cloud”), Microsoft more or less recreated the software experience on the phone for use in the web browser (including the Spot). All the photos and videos you make, as well as your contacts, can be accessed in a pretty cool interface right on the web.
Overall, I’m very impressed with the amount of thought and polish Microsoft has put into the Kin devices and their software, and I like how they are really trying to come with new ways for people to use software – whether I like these phones or not, they’re clearly unique and original, and in a world of iPhone clones, that’s a good thing. Whether people will want to buy these or not, while they can also buy iPhones or Android devices, remains to be seen however.
The UI style and colour choices are starting to match between Windows Phone 7, Xbox 360/Live, and now this Kin thing. More and more the pieces are starting to fit together, and while this event revealed nothing about the Courier (the device everybody really wants) it does show Microsoft is willing to come up with new things – which bodes well for the Courier.
I will wait for Windows Phone 7 and this KIN phone is not for me. For me KIN for college goers/teen.
Could they have found a worst name that ‘kin hell it’s crashed again?
I don’t think it’s “terrible” to have a large social network (much as “networking” is overhyped these days). However, knowing what most social network sites are used for, I can see a day where the bulk of a teen’s social interactions are punctuated by chirps heralding such important messages as “Jenny just harvested their chicken coop and found some Treasured Golden Mystery Eggs, and wants to thank their friends for feeding the chickens!”
“We’re going to crank social up to 11,” said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment division. Wrapping up the event, Bach also described KIN as “couture software for Generation Upload”
Come on MS, are you sleeping? I waited for the iPhone killer and all you release is this? I mean the interface is nice, but no installable apps? No smartphone? Just a web browser? This phone is intended for kindergarten?
Edited 2010-04-12 21:08 UTC
It’s a Sidekick replacement. Viewed in that light, it’s actually pretty perfect.
These aren’t windows mobile devices or windows 7 phones. They just shanked themselves. What the heck is the point of this line of phones? Why couldn’t they just have a less powerful win 7 phone?
These are like a motoblur phones, but less useful. If some great new killer social networking app comes up, these kids will be stuck until they get a new phone. If the tech was around a few years ago thse phones might be integrated with friendster, yahoo 360, and myspace.
New social websites/tech are difficult to predict, if you don’t allow for expandability through an app store, the product has the potential to become unpopular overnight. 4 square is a good example. These social kids all gravitate to 4 square and compete to be the mayor of apple bees or what not, but the poor kids that end up with a kin will be excluded.
The Android/Iphone kids will pity them and cry out “why don’t you get a real phone”.
People get all upset about the iphone Lock in, well this is pre Iphone cell phone openness. No apps for anyone, from any source!
Because that would fragment the WP7 platform. They have very strict minimun hardware specs for WP7, such that users can expect that any app will run properly on the WP7 phone that they own. Making a less powerful WP7 phone would go totally against that, and would be the first step to fragmentation that WM encountered and that Android is on the way to suffering (if the issue is left unaddressed).
Well, software updates are easy to add functionality as time goes on, including the ability to run apps, if necessary
Also, I don’t know what the motoblur features are, but these kins are Zunes as well, and allow playing millions of Zune songs over 3G if you have Zune Pass. (Were I Verizon, I’d offer Zune Pass as an option for the data plan (I would still offer plans without Zune Pass, for those that already have Zune Pass).) (For Mac users, these Kins also sync with iTunes libraries’ non-DRM music.)
Thom, hats off for your coverage of this. What can I say, your thoughts echo mine exactly… Innovative interface, well-executed, perfect for the niche they are going for (which is not me
). And yes, the Courier is the device I really want!
Edited 2010-04-12 21:44 UTC
These will be great for Verizon Wireless in the U.S., as they are now charging $29.99 per month for unlimited data on any kind of phone, and most feature phones require at least a $9.99 per month plan for 5 GB of data.
I read somewhere this morning, it mentioned that courier has a big battery problem with supporting its idea to have two LCD screens. I think it makes sense. Portable is the king for any new concept.
Kin phone is really for sale in Toy R’US… Good job, MS!
Edited 2010-04-12 22:01 UTC
Here is the link.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/technology/12slate.html?ref=techn…
So the Courier is indeed real (if you trust NYT tech articles). Regarding battery issue with running two screens, how about simply using two batteries, one for each screen?
Irrelevant
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Less so than your comment, I’d say.
Sad but true.
I’m unlikely to buy one, but I do think this is pretty cool. It’s nice to see some new ideas in UI surface. I was worried that everyone will just try and copy the iPhone, but it looks like this is not the case.
I also think so. But iPhone’s UI interface is very friendly and easy to use, so many companies such as Samsung, LG copy it.
I didn’t like Apple, but we can learn many lessons from their creativity.
Apple has a single OS for the iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad. Even the main desktop Mac OS X shares a bunch of technologies.
On the other hand, Microsoft has Windows Mobile 6, Windows Phone 7 & Kin? 3 different OSes just for phones? Why couldn’t they have waited a few months and launched these phones with Windows Phone 7? Integrate the social aspects into an app or something. If MS themselves don’t use Windows Phone 7, why should others use it? After all Android is free?
You very clearly miss the point. Did you read the article at all?
For what it’s worth, it’s not worth for me but for the Sidekick crowd (teens) this is perfect. What I don’t really like is that it’s exclusive to one carrier, and should be really on all major ones as they really sell this stuff.
Kin One looks like crap, but Two looks cool, reminds me of my Pre.
The new (old?)strategy at MS seems to be to release something horrid and then release something halfway decent. The release of the second product is seen as the second coming because it looks so good compared to the first product while in all reality is only halfway decent.
vista<win7
kin,1/2<Upcoming winphone7 device
I already knew that the kin wouldn’t be for me, but I watched the announcement just to see the tech, and it’s pretty impressive.
I think that there would be a market for Microsoft/Verizon to sell a kin hub to WP7 users, so one could use a full WP7 phone, but still have the “spot” and automatic upload of pics/vids to the “cloud” and the very slick timeline interface kin uses to access the uploaded content from the web on a computer.