Microsoft and Google Compete for Mobile Phone Market

Microsoft Unveils Kin – Its Latest Smartphone

New devices go on sale in the US through Verizon Wireless

April 12, 2010

Guardian - Microsoft hopes to take on the growing importance of bitter rivals Apple and Google in the mobile phone market with a new range of its own mobile devices that focus on social networking.

Its new "Kin" range of mobile phones have slide-out qwerty keyboards – with the smaller device bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Palm Pre – and will be arriving in the US within weeks. British mobile phone users, however, will have to wait until the autumn when the Kin devices will be available on the Vodafone network.

Microsoft has been in the mobile phone market for almost a decade but has consistently failed to grab anything like the market share it has enjoyed in the PC world. Its share of the US smartphone market dropped to 15.1% in February from 19.1% in November, while Google's Android platform has 9%, up from 3.8%, and Apple maintained its quarter share of the market, according to figures from Comscore.

With analysts convinced that the next generation of web users will most likely be accessing the internet on a mobile device rather than a desktop computer it has become increasingly crucial to Microsoft that it improve its mobile offering.

The new devices are a result of a project within Microsoft known as Pink and have been developed alongside the seventh version of Microsoft's mobile phone software. Windows Phone Series 7 was announced back in February and several mobile phone manufacturers are already working on devices that use the new software.

But Microsoft finally seems to have learned that just developing good software does not lead to a winning mobile phone.

Apple has complete control over the iPhone, while even Google has decided in recent months that it needs more of a say in how the open standards mobile phone platform it has championed – called Android – is implemented.

Earlier this year Google launched its own phone, the Nexus One. It is manufactured by HTC but Google has controlled exactly how the device looks and works.

In a similar manner, the Kin devices are manufactured by Sharp but Microsoft has control over the software, online services and hardware. The phones are designed to make it easy for users to access Microsoft's online services – including search engine Bing – as well as publish and share information with their contacts.

In the US the devices will be available on Verizon Wireless while in Europe, Vodafone will launch them in the autumn in Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, with further markets to follow before the end of 2010.

"Vodafone is delighted to further its partnership with Microsoft, bringing our customers Microsoft's latest innovation – KIN," said Patrick Chomet, group director of terminals at Vodafone.

"Mobile social networking is increasingly having strong appeal for our customers. KIN has a unique and intuitive way of engaging with the user, enabling them easily to share experiences and stay in touch with their friends."

Pricing information and local availability dates will be announced by the markets closer to the launch date.

Vodafone has both Kin phones under a one-year exclusive deal in Europe.

Of the two devices the Kin One is the smaller and has a 5 megapixel camera – the same as the Nexus One and better than the camera in the iPhone. The larger Kin Two has an 8 mega-pixel camera and can take high definition video.

With the youth market firmly in mind, both phones are designed to be able to take pictures in low light with image stabilization and a bright LumiLED flash.