KIN ONE and KIN TWO Getting Price Cut on Verizon?

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Windows Phone 7 has been getting a lot of attention and is regarded by many as Microsoft’s rebirth in terms of a mobile operating system. While Windows Mobile and its various iterations, has a hefty chunk of the market share, it’s continously been poorly recieved and has been deemed clunky and almost unusable when comparing it to new age mobile operating systems like the forthcoming iOS 4 and Google’s Android.

Then came the KIN line – mobile devices made by Microsoft marketed towards the ever so social tween demographic. Featuring things such as a slide out QWERTY keyboard and full integration with all of the hottest social networks like Facebook and Twitter, the Kin line was basically a 13 year old girl’s dream phone, or so we thought. Once it actually made its way onto the market, things such as no app store (or ways to install additional apps), no games and even no instant messaging client plagued the KIN ONE and TWO and made it seem like a slightly smarter dumb phone.

However, the real thing that made users cringe was the price tag. Not only did you have to fork over $49.99 for the KIN ONE and $99.99 for the KIN TWO but you had to sign up for a 2-year contract (which is normal) that included a $30 per month data plan (which is also normal, sort of). The thing that was a problem for many was the fact that the KIN platform was so crippled and wouldn’t even be able to take advantage of a full fledged data plan, making said $30 per month data plan virtually useless.

Luckily, rumors have just surfaced that say Verizon and Microsoft are planning to cut the prices of the KIN ONE (tomorrow, I might add) to free with 2-year contract and to $49.99 for the KIN TWO, also with 2-year contract. However, until Microsoft expands the KIN platform and makes it more like a smartphone and less like a dumphone, consumers are still going to have a hard time laying down $30 a month for virtually useless data.