Photo: Martin Olsson / Wikimedia Commons

Though we were once led to believe Microsoft thought the future was in the cloud, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has now stated he believes that the future is in smart devices, where Microsoft is competing most prominently using Windows Phone 7 Series and Windows 7 tablets.

During the Worldwide Partner Conference, Ballmer said, ‘This year, one of the most important things that we will do in the smart device category is really push forward with Windows 7 based slates and with Windows Phone 7 phones.’

Watch this space

After slating the iPad in a veiled attack, calling it ‘the other random device that’s not currently supported by corporate IT’, Ballmer beat his chest about the incoming flood of Windows 7 tablets, saying, ‘In the course of the next several months you will see a range of Windows 7 based slates which I think you’ll find quite impressive. They will come from the people you would expect: from Asus, from Dell, from Samsung, from Toshiba, from Sony.’

Point man

Ballmer is reportedly under a lot of pressure from Microsoft’s investors and shareholders to start performing. The company’s head honcho, who is rumoured to be heading up the Entertainment & Devices division that was shaken up prior to the execution of the Microsoft Kin project, needs a pair of huge victories to stem the tide for Microsoft. The software giant runs the risk of being too reliant on its legacy businesses to be able to compete effectively.

In this respect, Windows 7 tablets need to be, at the very least, a success, and Windows Phone 7 Series needs to be an absolute home run. The embarrassment felt across Redmond over the death of Microsoft Kin is said to have damaged the whole company’s morale, and patience may be wearing thin with Ballmer’s leadership capabilities.

Photo: Microsoft

Not that we endorse inter-family violence, but Microsoft has announced that it has abandoned its Microsoft Kin One and Microsoft Kin Two social phones. The company is attributing the product culling to wanting to focus on Windows Phone 7 Series, but it appears weak sales are to blame.

Short life

A mere two months after being launched, the Microsoft Kin One and Microsoft Kin Two social phones aimed at teenagers will be discontinued. This means that the previously planned European launch for the duo of phones will no longer happen. Microsoft has announced that it is pulling the phone series because the company would rather focus on Windows Phone 7 Series, but the primary reason is believed to be soft sales. It is rumoured that, to date, Microsoft has only sold 500 units of its Kin phones.

Reason for the executive shake up?

With a corporation as large as Microsoft, in the event a major product release fails, usually someone gets blamed and, as the saying goes, heads roll. One will note that Microsoft Kin One and Microsoft Kin Two both belong to the Entertainment & Devices division previously headed up by Robbie Bach and evangelised by J. Allard. They have both left the company during this period, rekindling the rumours that they were let go, as opposed to leaving of their own accord.

Good idea

Microsoft’s decision to focus exclusively on Windows Phone 7 Series is a wise move on the Redmond Giant’s part, regardless of the cause. Not only are they displaying the kind of focus often called for from others, they’re displaying they haven’t underestimated the enormity of the task ahead of them. Once Windows Phone 7 is released, it will be going toe to toe with the iPhone 4 – a device selling as fast as they make them – and the Google Android lineup. Add to that the newfound energy – and financial power – Palm has with HP backing it, Windows Phone 7 Series isn’t taking a stroll in the park, and (next of) Kin would just be a distraction.

Photo: Microsoft

Microsoft recently hosted a special event where they finally revealed the worst kept secret in mobile technology, their Microsoft Kin – previously known as Project Pink – line of phones aimed at teenagers.

Two very Sharp devices

The pair of phones, both manufactured by Sharp, are web-enabled and have been dubbed, somewhat lazily, Kin 1 and Kin 2. Microsoft predicts these touchscreen phones will appeal to their target demographic by having a huge focus on social aspects of the web, from social networking to content sharing.

Loop, Spot, Studio

Kin’s primary differentiators from Windows Phone 7 Series devices are Kin Loop, Kin Spot and Kin Studio, while they do borrow from the same great Zune Marketplace integration headed for MS’s OS.

Photo: Twitter

Kin Loop acts as a central, single-page hub for following all your social network contact across Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and whichever other networking sites you use. The concept is very similar to what Motorola has been trying with its Motorola Blur function.

Kin Spot is the place where users can share information with their friends, such as location, pictures, and links to webpages.

Kin Studio, finally, is a nifty little web-based service that backs up all the content created on the Kin device, such as images snapped, videos recorded and messages shared. This content is organized in a timeline, so users can access their content according to when it was created.

Fantastic Zune integration

One of the major surprises of the Windows Phone 7 Series was how well Microsoft services like Zune Marketplace and Xbox Live were integrated. Kin borrows this concept by integrating the device into Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace, which on initial inspection is blisteringly quick. Zune Marketplace, with its £10 monthly subscription model to an unlimited library of music, is a great example of Microsoft beating Apple at its own game.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

Early impressions show that tech bloggers are in agreement that the phones are very well-built and have very accomplished touchscreen interfaces, though they try to do too much at once, inadvertently making the experience uncluttered and unpleasant.

However, one needs to bear in mind that tech bloggers are not the target market, and how much traction the Microsoft Kin phones will have with teens will only be seen once teens get their hands on them. Moreover, it will be interesting to see if teens are really looking for phones aimed at them as opposed to the Android, iPhone, BlackBerry and other smartphones everybody else is focusing on.

The Kin 1 and the Kin 2 will be available on Verizon in May, with Vodafone availability scheduled for later, meaning the UK may get these handsets yet.

Look forward to a thorough review of the Microsoft Kin devices closer to the release date.