The return of the Kin: Microsoft’s Kin ONEm, TWOm hit Verizon Wireless

By on Nov 18, 2010 at 10:16 AM
mobile November 18, 2010

It looks like Microsoft’s banished Kin handsets have taken the long walk of shame back to Verizon Wireless. You may remember back in late-June, Microsoft lowered the ax on the two devices — the Kin ONE and Kin TWO — noting that its main focus going forward would be Windows Phone 7. Although exact sales figures were never released for the device, it was widely speculated that the pair’s required data plan of $29.99 (making the minimum monthly bill around $70) had a lot to do with the abridged shelf-life.

Fast forward to today, five months later, and the same two devices are back — with and extra letter tacked onto their names and fewer data-plan-prerequisites. The relaunched Kin ONEm and Kin TWOm will retail for $19.99 and $49.99 respectively with a signed two-year contract. The pair offer a choice of two data plans: $15 for 150MB per month and $30 for 5GB per month. Verizon’s site does mention that the $9.99, 25MB feature-phone data plan is available for the Kins, but we haven’t been able to successfully add it to either handset.

There you have it. The Kin is back and just in time for the holidays.

Read [ONEm] Read [TWOm]

Tags:
, , , , , , ,
23 Comments

Related Articles

  • MeIamdbest

    What an awesome decision!!!

    Note Sarcasm above.

  • Anonymous

    They should have priced it that way from the first day, and not after an epic fail.

  • Steve

    Really?!?!?

  • sirpaul

    They are so ugly, and the plastic looks cheap. Especially the one on the right – if you’re going to buy a phone might as well have a nice, big screen. The thing is next to useless!

  • Darnell

    Well, they released WP7, that only sold about 40K units on day 1. So I guess they’re bringing the other loser back from the grave.

  • Emily

    They don’t require a data plan and they still have wifi on board…verizon’s only phones like that. This is what they should have been all along.

  • http://twitter.com/don_afrim Don_Afrim

    fail

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, cancel something and then bring it right back.

    WTF happened to Microsoft? Bill Gates left and the whole place has been turned upside down. It reminds me of Apple in the late ’80′s and early ’90′s, leaderless and visionless.

  • http://twitter.com/carcomptoy Jeremiah

    I’m sure they were dying to get rid of the overstock, but the addition of the “m” really confuses me…what’s the point??

    • Anonymous

      m is for moron

    • Anonymous

      m stands for monkey boy Ballmer

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Smith/81201026 Chris Smith

    Got to empty the warehouse somehow, why not sell the rest of your inventory at lower prices, some money is better then no money. The phones still work as intended so where is the issue?

  • Anonymous

    great present for those you hatewhen you can get a real phone for .01 on amazonwhy on earth would anyone buy one of these miserable things that feel likethey came out of a machine at a penny arcade?
    you know… that one where you pick something with the little crane and drop it in the chute…

    • Anonymous

      Go to any wireless store and listen to some of the questions people ask, they really have no clue and this is why they walk out with one thinking it’s great compared to the Razor they used to have.

    • Anonymous

      Great gift idea for my naughty friends this Christmas

  • Ally P

    Bad idea. These phones are made for teens who are not good with limits such as data and the phone uses a lot of data. It centers around social media and pictures are not stored on the device they are upload to the kin studio which all uses data. To get this phone to stay under 150 mb is going to be hard and get a teen to stay under that or only use it on wifi won’t work.

  • Sonya

    (Slow motion voice) NNNNNOOOOOOO

  • http://rmbo47.myopenid.com/ rmbo47

    This is going to turn out like “Pet Semetary”. When you kill something, let it rest in peace. Bringing it back is just a bad idea.

  • Redrumm

    This phone failed because it had a failed design.UI is cluttered and very non user friendly, unable to copy contacts to device..5 steps to make a call, no apps support, no calender no calculator even the the feature most touted its social aspect is done much better on android. The required data package was just a extra nail in the coffin. This device just plain sucked…leave it in its grave and move on.

  • Droid User

    They do not require any data packages for the newer models. If you compare them to other phones that do not require data packages, they are actually quite good. Look at the other phones that do not require data packages…

    5mp/8mp cameras
    Touchscreens
    Storage space
    Wifi that still works and allows you to connect to internet for web/email even if not on a data package

    The KIN originally sucked due to it being a crappy smart phone. It’s not an above average non-smart phone.

  • http://twitter.com/kaiyel1 Kyle Miller

    Just give’em back to Microsoft, Verizon! NO ONE wants these.

  • Kat

    Microsoft has become the laughing stock of the phone industry.

    These phones belong in the landfill.

    They are worse than any feature phone. They don’t run Java apps as most feature phones do.

    Windows Mobile = FLOP
    Kin phones = FLOP
    Windows Phone 7 = FLOP

  • http://thepete.com thepete

    This is clearly just an attempt for Microsoft to capitalize on their recent success with the KinECT.

blog comments powered by Disqus