Who says there are no second acts in American life? Four and a half months after Microsoft’s mercy killing of its dismal Kin One and Kin Two phones, they’re back on sale at Verizon, with slightly tweaked names (Kin ONEm and Kin TWOm), lower prices, and cheaper service plans with more restrictions. In other words, they’ve been downgraded from smartphones to feature phones, which probably makes sense. (Verizon and Microsoft seemed to have trouble figuring out how much these phones should cost: When I was briefed on them, shortly before they were released, the initial planned price dropped during my meeting.)

I’m sort of rooting for the Kins to find a happy customer base, and their new positioning may help. Ultimately, though, I think that they have a major problem that price cuts can’t help: They’re unappealing, poorly-designed products…

 
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Read more: Microsoft, Microsoft Kin, Smartphones