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Verizon Relaunches Kin Phones with No Required Data Plan (VZ,MSFT)Nov 18, 2010 (SmarTrend News Watch via COMTEX) -- Verizon (NYSE:VZ) officials announced Thursday that the carrier will once again offer Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Kin ONEm and Kin TWOm mobile devices - this time as featured phones, instead of smartphones. Verizon rebranded the phones from the original Kin One and Kin Two, which were launched in April, based on the software differences in the newly-named devices. The older Kin phones were more like the Windows Phone 7, based on their own OS. The new devices are priced at $19.99 with a two-year contract for the Kin ONEm (or $119.99 without a contract), and $49.99 for the Kin TWOm with a contract (or $219.99 without a contract). The original prices ran at $49.00 for the Kin One and $99.00 for the Kin Two, which were later slashed to $29.00 and $49.00, respectively. A bonus buy one get one free add-on is being offered by Verizon for Kin TWOm customers, who can opt in for a free LG Ally. The Kin-family phones, which originally aimed to appeal to younger mobile users, offer similar social network access to Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, as well as Zune with Wi-Fi sideload and multi-media messaging. The phones previously required a $30 data plan, which Verizon has done now away with. A spokesperson for Verizon told PCMag.com, "They provide an option for customers who liked the form factor of the previous Kin phones, but want an Internet-capable device that doesn't require a data plan." However, customers wishing to opt in for set data plans have the choice of paying $15.00 per month for 150MB of data, $29.99 per month for unlimited data usage, and a pay-as-you-go option priced at $1.99 per MB. Verizon is an integrated telecommunications company that provides wire line voice and data services, wireless services, Internet services, and published directory information. The company also provides network services for the federal government including business phone lines, data services, telecommunications equipment and payphones. Verizon Communications has a potential upside of 2.1% based on a current price of $32.65 and an average consensus analyst price target of $33.32. On October 12, 2010, the company was upgraded from Hold to Buy, with a $39 price target, at Argus Research. The stock is trading at $32.65 which is 0.32% higher than the upgrade price of $32.54. Verizon is currently above its 50-day moving average (MA) of $32.45 and above its 200-day of $29.84. In the last five trading sessions, the 50-day MA has climbed 0.7% while the 200-day MA has risen 0.26%. Write to Chip Brian at [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SmarTrend analyzes over 5,000 securities simultaneously throughout the trading day and provides its subscribers with trend change alerts in real time. To get a free trial of our trading calls and maximize your trading results, please visit http://www.TradeTheTrend.com Get exclusive, actionable insight into how the market is expected to trend prior to market open with our free morning newsletter. Sign up at: http://www.TradeTheTrend.com/signup |