After years of eyeing the modern smartphone market from the vantage point of a lesser contender, Microsoft last month re-entered the arena with the launch of its Kin One and Two handsets, which it hopes will be more heavyweight competitors to established options.
To this point, Microsoft has only provided the operating software for other devices, but its Kin - with a vital touch screen and slide-out keyboards - has entered the market in a niche of its own. The handset is targeted at 15- to 30-year-olds and is banking on its social networking connectivity to differentiate itself from rivals such as the iPhone.
Specifically, the Kin will display updates from social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace on its main interface and offers easier methods for users to upload photos and videos to the sites as well as update statuses and automatically send text messages.
“We built Kin for people who live to be connected, share, express and relate to their friends and family,” Robbie Bach, president of the entertainment and devices division at Microsoft, said. “This social generation wants and needs more from its phone.”
Establishing a niche in the smartphone landscape has been a crucial ploy by both handset makers and software providers worldwide because of the earnings to be made. Last month, Chinese PC-maker Lenovo - which will launch its new LePhone - announced that it will strengthen its focus on its telecommunications offerings and predicted that its smartphone unit will make up as much as 20 per cent of its revenue within five years. HTC announced a week later that it would also boost production of its Android smartphones, aiming to increase shipments from 3.3 million handsets to 4.5 million from the first to second quarters of this year. The same day, HP announced it would pay $1.2 billion for Palm to ramp up its smartphone capability.
“I think the pie is too big for many people to survive right now - it’s ever-expanding and the biggest markets in Asia have not achieved 100 per cent penetration,” said regional chief digital officer at Starcom MediaVest Group Pushkar Sane.
“Think about it: we’ve moved away from an era where we’ve got a gadget and we’re going to keep it for five years. Now, we have our smartphones for 12 months.”
But Microsoft has encountered problems in the past that may still haunt Kin’s potential. According to Andy Ann, the director for mobile advertising firm New Digital Noise, Windows Mobile has proved to be an almost direct conversion of its PC-version, which hasn’t measured up to “the other companies who have put a lot effort into in catering to mobile users”.
Another path to success comes from application stores, which can be a real moneymaker for mobile brands. While Microsoft has its Windows Marketplace, few users or developers know about it in comparison to the alternatives. “I think it’s about applications, and the iPhone is still the leader with 99.4 per cent of the application market,” Ann said. “From a development standpoint, we know more about the iPhone and Android because they pretty much dominate the application market right now.”
In Asia specifically, Joseph Tsang, general manager of Iconmobile China, said Microsoft still faces its branding hurdle: for a region where mobile phones are a relevant function for internet accessibility, Windows Mobile’s operating system has been on a slew of phone models but hasn’t become a trend.
“For those mobile-ready markets like Hong Kong, Taiwan and even China - not to mention Japan and Korea - I have strong doubts for the success of Windows Mobile OS because it hasn’t seen success after so many years in the market,” says Tsang. “The Kin is just new ‘clothes’ for Windows Mobile OS. In those developing mobile markets like India, Pakistan, the Kin of course will still have still great opportunities, however those markets are price-sensitive and no one is sure about Kin's positioning in this regard.”
Got a view?
Email [email protected]
This article was originally published in the 6 May 2010 issue of Media.
To this point, Microsoft has only provided the operating software for other devices, but its Kin - with a vital touch screen and slide-out keyboards - has entered the market in a niche of its own. The handset is targeted at 15- to 30-year-olds and is banking on its social networking connectivity to differentiate itself from rivals such as the iPhone.
Specifically, the Kin will display updates from social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace on its main interface and offers easier methods for users to upload photos and videos to the sites as well as update statuses and automatically send text messages.
“We built Kin for people who live to be connected, share, express and relate to their friends and family,” Robbie Bach, president of the entertainment and devices division at Microsoft, said. “This social generation wants and needs more from its phone.”
Establishing a niche in the smartphone landscape has been a crucial ploy by both handset makers and software providers worldwide because of the earnings to be made. Last month, Chinese PC-maker Lenovo - which will launch its new LePhone - announced that it will strengthen its focus on its telecommunications offerings and predicted that its smartphone unit will make up as much as 20 per cent of its revenue within five years. HTC announced a week later that it would also boost production of its Android smartphones, aiming to increase shipments from 3.3 million handsets to 4.5 million from the first to second quarters of this year. The same day, HP announced it would pay $1.2 billion for Palm to ramp up its smartphone capability.
“I think the pie is too big for many people to survive right now - it’s ever-expanding and the biggest markets in Asia have not achieved 100 per cent penetration,” said regional chief digital officer at Starcom MediaVest Group Pushkar Sane.
“Think about it: we’ve moved away from an era where we’ve got a gadget and we’re going to keep it for five years. Now, we have our smartphones for 12 months.”
But Microsoft has encountered problems in the past that may still haunt Kin’s potential. According to Andy Ann, the director for mobile advertising firm New Digital Noise, Windows Mobile has proved to be an almost direct conversion of its PC-version, which hasn’t measured up to “the other companies who have put a lot effort into in catering to mobile users”.
Another path to success comes from application stores, which can be a real moneymaker for mobile brands. While Microsoft has its Windows Marketplace, few users or developers know about it in comparison to the alternatives. “I think it’s about applications, and the iPhone is still the leader with 99.4 per cent of the application market,” Ann said. “From a development standpoint, we know more about the iPhone and Android because they pretty much dominate the application market right now.”
In Asia specifically, Joseph Tsang, general manager of Iconmobile China, said Microsoft still faces its branding hurdle: for a region where mobile phones are a relevant function for internet accessibility, Windows Mobile’s operating system has been on a slew of phone models but hasn’t become a trend.
“For those mobile-ready markets like Hong Kong, Taiwan and even China - not to mention Japan and Korea - I have strong doubts for the success of Windows Mobile OS because it hasn’t seen success after so many years in the market,” says Tsang. “The Kin is just new ‘clothes’ for Windows Mobile OS. In those developing mobile markets like India, Pakistan, the Kin of course will still have still great opportunities, however those markets are price-sensitive and no one is sure about Kin's positioning in this regard.”
Got a view?
Email [email protected]
This article was originally published in the 6 May 2010 issue of Media.
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