Texting teens might hamper Kin's sale
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 06 May 2010, 21:51 IST
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Texting teens might hamper Kin's sale
Bangalore: With the new habit of cellphone usage among the teens, the goal for capturing the market share with Microsoft Kin seems to be difficult, reports a latest study. Pew Research shows that just 27 percent of teens go online and 72 percent of them text their friends. If Kin requires a $70 smartphone plan without a built in text messaging, most of the new phones' e-mail and social networking would actually go unused as just 23 percent visit social networks and 21 percent send e-mail according to electronista. The averages in many cases would virtually demand an unlimited text messaging plan. A typical teenage male would message friends 30 times a day, while a female does so 80 times a day. At the extreme, 11 percent send over 200 messages every day. The demographics have the potential to change but could be a blow to Microsoft's ambitions for Kin. Its custom UI focuses heavily on all popular networking sites, which are now in the minority among teens and are often too expensive. High school students often can't afford the cost of a smartphone-level plan . At Verizon, an individual talk and text plan costs at least $10 less than the price offered for the Kin and offers unlimited messaging.A Kin would need to be attached to at least an $80 plan, for getting the facility for messaging. Competitors like the $99 iPhone 3G will often have similar plan costs to the Kin but support third party apps and more social networks than Microsoft's devices. 46 percent of all teen phone users play games on their phones, so they may have an advantage of gaming.

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