iGeneration

Charlie Osborne
Home / News & Blogs / iGeneration

Kin network pricing is youth extortion: $85 a month

By | May 5, 2010, 4:49pm PDT

Summary: The KIN One and Two, Microsoft’s new youth-aimed smartphones, are the best smartphones you’ll never buy. Why? Because it’ll cost you $85 a month for two painful years.

The Microsoft KIN devices are aimed at students and the younger user in particular, to take control of their online lives and stand out from the crowd as part of the cool-kid collective.

As I strongly suspected, the pricing issue and the potential for an inability for networks to play ball has indeed arisen, meaning while the device itself may be relatively cheap, the network costs for the full package will be extortionate.

In short:

  • The KIN One will be priced at $49.99 and will be available on 6th May 2010 on the Verizon network.
  • The KIN Two will be priced at $99.99 and will be available on the same day on the same network.
  • Both devices will cost as such after a $100 mail-in rebate with a two year network contract.

All good and well on the device front. I’d say that’s relatively cheap off the mark, and $99 after a $100 mail-in rebate isn’t too bad. But here’s where it gets tricky.

  • Verizon is the only network that supports the KIN devices, so you’re already stuck if you’re not a customer.
  • If you’re to use Twitter, Facebook and other social networking tools - which the device is designed and marketed for - you’ll need a smartphone plan. This costs $29.99 a month according to Engadget.
  • Seeing as it’s a phone, you’ll also need a voice plan. This wil cost you $39.99 a month.
  • For a Zune Pass, you’ll need to cough up another $14.99 a month, says LiveSide.

All in all, if you were to go with just voice and data - which frankly is the very least you will need for these phones - that’s going to cost you over a two-year contract:

  • KIN One + voice only: $1,010
  • KIN One + voice and data: $1,727
  • KIN One + voice, data and Zune Pass: $2,086
  • KIN Two + voice only: $1,060
  • KIN Two + voice and data: $1,777
  • KIN Two + voice, data and Zune Pass: $2,136

In short, it’s roughly $85 per month for two years. Gizmodo has some figures; though mine and theirs don’t completely add up (there’s a chance they don’t have dyscalculia, which really doesn’t help).

Figures are rounded up to the nearest dollar and is a rough estimate of how much the total device plus plans will cost over the two year service agreement with Verizon. Of course, this may fluctuate based on how much usage you actually consume.

So, it’s not the hardware or the software, the social networking aspect, or the lack of downloadable and installable applications that is the issue with these devices. It always has been, and always will be the price - even before it was announced today.

*thud* *thud*

That is the sound of Microsoft and its KIN partners shooting themselves in both feet. I agree with Gizmodo, frankly. It’s the best smartphone that you’ll never, ever buy.

Will you buy one for yourself or your teenage kid?

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “iGeneration”

Topics

Network, Generation Y, Pricing Strategy, Pricing, Marketing Research, Marketing, Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker, a criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, Canterbury, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

Disclosure

Zack Whittaker

I worked briefly with Microsoft UK in 2006 but no longer have any connection with the company. Regardless, I remain impartial and unbiased in my views.

I don't hold any stock or shares, investments or industrial secrets in any company, but have signed confidentiality agreements with a number of UK and U.S. organisations, whose names I am not at liberty to disclose.

I was involved with Kent Union, the University of Kent's student union, undertaking voluntary, non-salaried, elected positions between early 2009 and mid-2010.

No other company, body, government department, non-governmental organisation or third sector organisation employs me or pays me a salary in any capacity whatsoever.

As a freelance journalist, whenever expenses are given and taken by a company that is not CBS Interactive, these will be disclosed in each relevant post to ensure transparency.

I currently work with a UK law enforcement unit, but this is an entirely separate position which bears no connection to other work.

(Updated: 23rd October 2011)

Biography

Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker, criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, UK, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

After studying criminology at university, though still in his early-20's, he has already had a series unconventional work and voluntary positions. He has worked with researchers studying neurological illnesses like Tourette's syndrome (which he suffers from), has given lectures on the nature of disabilities in the public community, and occasionally ends up speaking on television and radio discussing the events of the day.

He first had academic work published at the age of 22, then still an undergraduate, and has been cited by a wide range of publications: from the Huffington Post, Business Insider, AllThingsDigital, The Atlantic Wire and CBS News.

Talkback Most Recent of 9 Talkback(s)

  • Kins suck massive amounts of data - they should pay
    Every time a Kin takes a photo, the unit automatically uploads it to Microsoft's cloud service, whether the user wants to or not. Everything goes to the cloud. With hundreds of 8 megapix photos, that's an avalanche of data. Why shouldn't Kin users pay?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    gjafg
    5th May 2010
  • What a waste
    Still not sure why everyone wants to whine over the cost of the data plan.

    Oh, that is right, iPhone's data plan is free!!! Not...

    That sound is me rolling my eyes over such a worthless article I read.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    theog
    5th May 2010
  • How ignorant to use "extorsion" in this blob. Apple's equiv. plan is 129.
    Add up how much a young person pays for an iphone, the apps they buy, the crappiest service in the world, AT&T (take a look at how much that is per month), the pay as you go money they spend at itunes etc etc.

    This is actually cheap for a far more functional phone for young people. Just what they want and the way they use technology. No 129.99 a month to AT&T plus apps, itunes etc etc.
    MS did their homework on this one. Dead on.

    What BS to even post this garbage. And the Zune pass is a great deal. You get to keep as much music as 15.00 would buy you on itunes PLUS listen to any music you want, any time in addition.

    And, you don't have to buy a Zune pass, that is totally optional and you can load your existing music on it instead or buy as you go, which has never gone away, sort of like with itunes....you've heard of it?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    xuniL_z
    5th May 2010
  • One sided article
    To be fair, the article should compare the prices and plans for similar devices, not just pick on one and say it's too expensive.

    Having said that, compared to the price and features of my current smart phone contract, this does look very expensive though.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Fred Fredrickson
    5th May 2010
  • RE: Kin network pricing is youth extorsion: $85 a month
    "Extortion" really? anyways even though i disagree with your article , One other thing to keep in mind is the zune pass is good for 3 devices....
    ZDNet Gravatar
    patchman
    6th May 2010
  • RE: Kin network pricing is youth extorsion: $85 a month
    This is more of Verizon shooting itself in the foot than Microsoft or its partners. The $29.99 plan is crazy for a feature phone like this. And because its a feature phone that's most likely why you don't see a lot of apps for it - probably a restriction from Verizon. I have a Verizon feature phone and yes there are apps for it but no one buys them because Verizon charges $2.99 a month subscription for them.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Loverock Davidson
    6th May 2010
  • RE: RE: Dont forget text
    I noticed your plan scenarios don't include text messaging. Isn't this phone basically the new Sidekick? Isn't one of it's primary purposes for the Kin's existence to text? Add that -- and Zune Pass in -- and you've got a $100 plan on a dumbphone
    ZDNet Gravatar
    BiffTannen1955
    6th May 2010

  • ZDNet Blogger

    RE: Kin network pricing is youth extorsion: $85 a month
    @BiffTannen1955 Good point. I would have thought that text messages would have come as part of the smartphone - the voice - plan, as texts are very, very rarely sent over the data network, which is a different package.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    zwhittaker
    6th May 2010
  • RE: dumbphone? Because it's from Microsoft maybe?
    For the same data/voice plan with iphone you are looking at 120.00 a month, just for the plan. That doesn't include apps, itunes purchases, etc etc.
    This is a deal. MS hit the nail on the head.
    Especially since these phones are best of breed.

    The zune pass gives you more songs to keep then you'd get spending the 15.00 at itunes, and on top of all of those keepers, you get to listent to any music you want, as much as you want wherever and whenever you want w/o another dime. It's the best deal by far.
    But many people don't seem to understand that nobody is forcing you to buy the zune pass. Just like you are not obligated to buy 20 songs on itunes per month or have a minimum app purchase quota you must reach to keep your plan active. I mean WTH? You can still buy tunes from zune one at at time, just like itunes.
    ARE you people brain dead or just seriously ABM stock who feel they have to make stuff up to put a stain on anything MS does.
    Then later this year the WP7 will be along to clean up the rest of the market.

    ZDNet Gravatar
    xuniL_z
    7th May 2010

Talkback - Tell Us What You Think

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources