If at first you don’t succeed… add an ‘m’ to the name of your product, capitalize a word, and cut the price. At least that’s what Microsoft is doing with its newly and cleverly renamed Kin ONEm and Kin TWOm phones. You know Microsoft, TWOm kinda sounds like ‘tomb’… but I digress. Oh sure, they might sound like the old Kin One and Kin Two, but they’re different now. They have a different name! And they cost less! So they must be good.
Part of the difficulty Microsoft had in the initial release of the phones was that they were classified as smartphones, and thus were placed in a higher price category for data plans. In that space, the Kin fared poorly when compared against the iPhone and Android handsets, and sales were abysmal. The phone was pulled after just six weeks on the market.
Verizon has these (new!) phones priced at $20 for the Kin ONEm on a two-year plan, and $50 for the Kin TWOm plus a second phone in a buy one get one free deal. Voice plans now start at $40 plus $10 for data, which is substantially lower than the $70 and up data plans for smartphones. Hopefully the lower price point and more affordable voice and data plans will allow Microsoft to sell more than 8,810 units this time.
Article Via Electronista
Actually, the phones don't require a data plan at all (despite the confusion on both the website and customer service). That's the beauty of this fire sale. Verizon doesn't have ANY decent feature phone that doesn't require a $10 data plan. The Kin TWOm has an 8MP camera, touch screen, and WiFi, no data required. Despite the phone's other shortcomings (and they are many), this is a good deal.
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