Microsoft announced two new wireless Windows phones today, called Kin One and Kin Two, focused on socially connected users, 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.
Kin actually beats Windows Phone 7 to launching Zune on phones and plays and syncs music. Since it has an always-on connection, it can even stream songs from the Zune Marketplace for those that already have a Zune Pass, making storage a possible non-issue. Notably, there will be a Mac music loading content to take music from iTunes, but no shopping from the Zune store.
The first two phones share capacitive touchscreens, sliding QWERTY keyboards and cameras with an extra-bright Lumi LED flash. The Kin One, previously codenamed the Turtle, is the entry level and has a 2.6-inch touchscreen, a five-megapixel camera, 4GB of storage, an FM radio, GPS and Wi-Fi. The Kin Two (formerly Pure) has a larger 3.4-inch screen and an eight-megapixel camera.
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