Microsoft And Verizon Defend The Kin's Data Plan; Offer Glimpse Into The Future

The Microsoft Kin devices have gotten a lot of publicity since their official announcement. It picked up quite a bit just last week, when the pair of devices got a release date, pricing, and the details of their monthly payments were revealed. Unfortunately, when that last part hit the newswire, the publicity wasn't necessarily the best. $30 per month for the unlimited data may make sense to some, but considering these devices aren't smartphones, it made several people out there scratch their head in confusion. Well, Microsoft and Verizon want to clear the air.

As it stands right now, the Kin One and Kin Two are automatically, and always (unless decided against by the user) connected to the cloud. The devices are designed to back-up video, pictures, and data to the distant servers, and therefore representatives of Verizon Wireless and Microsoft defended the pricing, suggesting that the connected approach of the phones deems the pricing makes perfect sense. Despite the fact that neither of the devices can download games or apps, which basically removes them from the smartphone class of devices, they are still getting pegged with a smartphone data plan.

Greg Sullivan, Senior Product Manager of Microsoft's Mobile Communications Unit, wanted to clarify on Microsoft's position on the Kin and Windows Phone 7. It boils down to the fact that the two platforms are going to merge at some unspecified point in the future, and when that happens, the Kin One and Kin Two devices will be able to download applications and games. Which means that in several months perhaps the monthly fee will make sense, but for now it continues to be something that doesn't make any sense.

[via Computerworld]