Microsoft's new phones out

Microsoft has launched two new phones aimed at young people who use smart phones to navigate and manage their social lives.

The phones, called Kin One and Kin Two, and launched yesterday, signal Microsoft's fresh assault on the low end of the smart phone market dominated now by BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, and by Apple, with its iPhone.

This is Microsoft's first foray into designing its own phones.

It comes six months before the company launches its new Windows software for phones made by handset producers HTC, Samsung and others.

The phones are made by Japan's Sharp Corp, and will be sold by Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group.

The new phones, available in the United States in May and in Europe in September, focus on combining feeds from Facebook, MySpace and Twitter on to the homescreen and allowing users to set up networks of friends to share photographs and web links.

A Microsoft spokesman in New Zealand said there was no official launch date for the phones in New Zealand.

Both the new Kin phones have a touch screen, slide-out keyboard and camera.

Kin One is smaller, designed to be used with only one hand, while Kin Two has a larger screen and keyboard, more memory and can record high-definition video.