Microsoft is announcing its first Windows Phone today, the KIN (previously codenamed Pink). I'm blogging about this in real-time over on Windows Phone Secrets, but here's the information from Microsoft:
Moments ago in San Francisco, Robbie Bach unveiled KIN, a new WindowsPhone in partnership with Verizon and Sharp. KIN is a new social experience from Microsoft that combines the phone, online services and the PC. Designed for a socially connected audience with unique features such as the Spot, the Loop, and Studio, KIN helps you navigate your social life. It brings together who and what you love in a whole new way. KIN has several unique features:
- KIN Loop – The Loop is your favorite people and the things you love—on your home screen, in real time. You tell KIN who and what is important, and it delivers the latest updates from your favorite places (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Windows Live)
- KIN Spot – Share almost anything – photos, texts, web pages – with almost anyone by simply dragging them to a “spot” on your phone. Since the Spot is always on your screen you don’t have to worry about opening a new application to share and upload
- KIN Studio – The KIN Studio is your KIN phone on the web. Everything you create on your phone – messages, contacts, photos, videos – is also stored in the cloud and accessible from any web browser. The content that’s important to you is automatically backed up to your own secure website and presented in a visual timeline to make it easy to view and share with friends. And with all the storage you’ll need, there’s almost no limit on what you can keep.
KIN will be exclusively available from Verizon Wireless in the U.S. beginning in May and from Vodafone this autumn in Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
This looks better than I had expected, to be honest. More info on the KIN web site.