Yesterday Microsoft announced its long talked about Project Pink as two mobile devices called Kin One and Kin Two, codenames Turtle and Pure. Microsoft have taken a very different approach to these two phones than its Windows Phone 7 endeavour and have the potential to make quite an impact on the target demographic.
What Kin Is Not
First, its probably best I tell you what these phones aren’t to avoid any confusion. These two phones are not related to Windows Phone 7 in pretty much anyway, this is mainly because work started on the software for the Kin devices long before the current Windows Phone 7 work had started. These devices are also not aimed at the likes of me (and probably you) as they are aimed at teenagers and people in their young twenties.
There is no app marketplace on these devices, what comes on the device at retail is pretty all there is going to be, Microsoft and its network providers can actually add functionality and apps to the OS using “over the air” updates.
Kin is not a competitor to the iPhone, Android, Blackberry or Windows Phone 7 as it targets a completely different part of the mobile market and doesn’t replicate much functionality of the main mobile OSs.
What Kin Is
Kin is a new brand from Microsoft which incorporates two devices, the Kin One and Kin Two, and a complimentary service in the cloud. The OS for these devices is different from anything in the marker in that it is focussed solely around sharing content with friends. Microsoft spent a long time and interviewed many, many people before even planning the first features to find out exactly what “socialogists” (the name given to the younger generation who interact mainly through social networks) wanted from a mobile device.
There are two examples of this research that can be immediately seen when looking at the spec sheet. First is that most teens want a great camera on their phone to share photos and videos with their friends but more than this the camera probably needs to work very well in low light conditions such as a night club. So Microsoft have included a 5MP and an 8MP in the Kin One and the Kin Two respectively and have optimised the camera for low light situations and then added a flash brighter than any devices currently on the market. To me that seems a well thought out piece of design.
The second example is the battery life of these devices which was designed to last from “a Friday night to a Monday morning” to cater for those people who go out for the whole weekend and who want to be able to use their phone for the whole time.
This level of thinking and designing exactly to the target market is also obvious in the OS in which there the “wallpaper” of the devices is actually a dynamic list of the latest news from social networks and other feeds such as blogs. This feature is called the Kin Loop and is best demonstrated in the below video.
Its all very well being able to see what one’s friends are up too but to be able to share content is also a big part of the social networks, Microsoft have included an easy way to do this too. There is a dedicated “spot” on the screen that allows a user to immediately share pretty much anything they see on the device with any of their friends, called the Kin Spot.
As I said earlier Kin is not just 2 devices but also an online service too, this service called Kin Studio is akin (get it) to the My Phone service for current Windows Mobile devices which backs up most things on the phone such as photos, videos, texts, contacts etc. However this service is a supped up version of My Phone as it has a far more interactive interface, allows users to browse a timeline of when items were uploaded and also features geo-tagging so its possible to browse photos on a map (one use sited for this was on very drunken nights out to remember where the user went).
The OS features an interface that is perhaps a “Metro-lite” in that it is certainly not Metro but makes use of typography and squares just like the UI of Windows Phone 7 and the Zune HD. However of the few apps that are on the device there is a Zune app in which users will be able to play music and videos that are stored on the device or even stream music from the Zune service if they have a Zune Pass, this app has the same UI as the Zune HD. Elements of Metro can also be found when watching a recorded video with the playback controls looking like they do on the Zune HD.
The Kin 1 and Kin 2 are slightly different in both design and specs, as you can see below.
Just another piece of information I have heard but has had little mention elsewhere is that customers can buy these devices with their own custom back covers for the devices. This could make the devices very personal and is another way to entice the teen market who would want a device to be unique like them.
Who Would Want Kin?
Microsoft have certainly put a lot of thought into designing this phone for the teenagers and young 20 somethings but a lot of people are asking if this market will actually be interested in these devices. They have asked that without an app marketplace or ecosystem teens wont want these devices, nor will they want a phone without games.
At first I thought that teens would want these things but actually I spoke to some of my friends last week about mobile phones and surprisingly I found most of them disliked their touch screen devices, if they had them, and actually a lot of them only wanted a cheap feature phone for about £10-£30. They certainly aren’t interested in having access to thousands of apps or 1GHz processors. I also found that they often have a camera on them and/or an MP3 player. It seems to me that the likes you and me with our love for the latest and greatest gadgets isn’t prevalent as I had thought.
Now my mates are forever on Facebook and sending each other texts and generally we don’t ring each other to organise a meet-up but do use Facebook or Instant Messaging. On a night out people have their camera phone but also a camera with a flash and semi-decent lens to actually take photos, they are unlikely to have their MP3 player though, but during the day they will have their phone and an MP3 player to listen to music in the car.
If you then look at the hardware and software of the Kin devices these seem to fit the bill for the “upload generation”, well my friends at the very least, with their good cameras and tight integration of social networks. I think these are the perfect devices for teens who want to share everything with their mates but who aren’t interested in having the latest gadgets.
The Future
Several people have been able to chat with Microsoft about Kin, Windows Phone 7 and how they can both exist within the mobile market. The answer to this question has been fairly consistent in that the mobile market is so large its possible for Microsoft to offer two (well more if you include Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Phone Starter) mobile OSs because they will be appealing to very different markets. Kin as we know is aimed at 15-30 year olds where as Windows Phone 7 will be aimed at 25+, there is obvious overlap there but that is for people who might have settled in their live at 25 and aren’t out and meeting people in the same way a teenager might be.
Microsoft obviously don’t see this to be an issue but they are still offering two main mobile OSs which is probably a waste of recourses in some areas. However the company does see an aligning of the two OSs over the coming years which will hopefully see something like a unified Kin Studio like service for all Microsoft mobile devices and OSs and more unified user interface and experience across Windows Phone 7 and Kin.
Find out what I think about Kin in Kin Coverage (Part 2): My View.
More Info
If you want more info about Kin then you visit the official site or follow Kin on
If you want to know what the tech community think then check these sites out
- Engadget’s coverage
- Gizmodo’s coverage
- Paul Thurrott – KIN You Hear Me Now? Microsoft Announces New Social Phones
- Mary Jo Foley – Five surprising things about Microsoft’s Kin – Microsoft’s Ho: The Kin is not a ‘Microsoft phone’
- Ina Fried – Microsoft’s Kin: What it is–and isn’t – Drilling down on the Kin
