You have to give Microsoft’s consumer devices and entertainment divisions credit; they at least know how to throw a good fire sale.
The last couple of fire sales from the company included $49 HD DVD players, as well as permitting retailers to sell older Xbox 360 for as low as $99 after taking into account a bonus gift card.
The latest fire sale however is for Microsoft’s KIN One and KIN Two phones. The phones are being sold on Amazon.com without contract for very low prices; $199 for the KIN One and $299 for the KIN Two.
At first, you might think that this is a raw deal still; after all, these weren’t smartphones. However, they do double as Zune HD players (sans HDMI output), and include enough storage to double as powerful feature phones with music capacity.
The mandatory $29.99 data plan can even be worked around, if you are willing to activate on Page Plus Cellular. However, be careful, KIN does use data at will for social networking and email features… you may want to turn those off if using it on unofficial prepaid MVNOs.
Of course, if Microsoft really wanted to throw KIN users a going away present, it would be an optional firmware flash to Windows Mobile 6.5.3…
There’s no point using these as Zunes.
They have phone operating systems and phone electronics which will drain the battery. Although the capabilities of Kin were not like a smartphone, the Kin had smartphone electronics (eg Tegra processor). This drains the battery fast.
The Kin is just not worth it as a music player. I guess if it gets cheap enough you could buy 2 and use them as book-ends.
Zune HD also uses Tegra for its CPU. That wasn’t an oversight on Microsoft’s part, it’s part of why Zune HD firmware was so easily ported and incorporated into KIN.
The main use would be for someone who wants a Zune that can double as a prepaid cell phone, on Page Plus. Granted, that’s a small optimal market, but it’s certainly likely to outpace the 500 or so people that bought KIN on postpay, before it was killed.
Also, once it’s activated on Page Plus, you can also use it as a Wi-Fi device… trading Zune HD’s HD output for email and social networking.
If Microsoft was smart, they’d backport KIN’s email functionality to Zune HD. Though, I suspect Zune HD’s days are numbered as Windows Phone 7 rises.
Can someone confirm all the features work with pageplus?
Page Plus phones operate as VZW data devices. That’s not really the issue. The issue is that their largest data plan is 50 MB, after that you’re paying per kilobyte. So, in terms of data consumption, KIN’s Loop and email will probably consume more than that.
You’re best off disabling KIN services while on Page Plus, and using them only on Wi-Fi, and leaving the 50 MB per month (on the 1200 talk & text plan) to do web browsing with the KIN’s IE/Zune-based web browser.
[…] Verizon Following Microsoft’s decision to kill the Kin platform earlier this month and a massive fire sale after low sales (rumored to be between 500-8000 devices total depending on who’s counting) two […]