This should be interesting
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A few months back, Microsoft held a special event for its first Microsoft-brand phones, the Kin One and the Kin Two. It was a bit of an awkward launch in general. The tech industry already knew all about Windows Phone 7 and was just counting down the months until its fall release. Then, Microsoft launched these two messaging phones out of nowhere and there wasn't a single person who was expecting it.
Though it was wonderful to see two Microsoft phones months in advance of the WP7 launch, the Kins weren't running Redmond's new Windows Phone 7 OS. No, despite being built on the same foundation as Windows Phone 7, their operating system was actually quite different and offered a more basic experience. These were messaging phones optimized for social networking and, ultimately, they were not successful. Verizon pulled the Kin One and Two off shelves just over a month after it went on sale. However, while we wrote it all off as a bad experience and moved on to more important things, like Windows Phone 7, it seems Verizon and Microsoft have not been so quick to abandon the Kin line.
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Big Red is apparently bringing those two social networking phones back from the dead before the end of the year. PPCGeeks.com got their hands on a Verizon roadmap that shows the two Microsoft phones on a Q4 release schedule. It looks like they'll be returning as the KIN ONEm and KIN TWOm, but the phones look largely the same. The same except for one big difference: No $30 per month data plan! That's right, it looks like someone at Verizon finally realized that offering a feature phone with a plan meant for smartphones was a bit of a mistake. No specifics on pricing, release or new plans, but we'll keep you posted.