To promote their new phones, The Kin One and Kin Two, Microsoft is sending one young lady across our fair country for a series of face-to-face meetings with her digital Friends and Followers. Her name is Rosa, and she’s already off and running with her Sharp/Windows/Verizon device. She's having coffee and touring the respective domiciles of various people with which she’s previously only had these casual digital connections. (FYI - Their YouTube channel provides the best viewing experience)

I admit to the potential dissidence of this campaign supporting devices that are supposed to appeal to tweens/teens, and they aren’t really considered media mavens that connect far and wide with lots of people they don’t actually know. However, it is very ‘now’ to send precocious young people on journeys of positive self/community discovery (Coke did something similar recently), and the question that this campaign asks might appeal strongly to the parents of the kids who end up using the device.

Device notes from a guy who has not had a hands on with the devices: though the Kin One and Two are getting some positive reviews, I put this family squarely (get it?) in the Palm Pre knock-off camp for form factor. It’s software is supposed to be pretty lightweight, and it doesn’t provide an App store experience to load up your phone with games and stuff. Ultimately that might be a good thing though. If the device has a good browser that (eventually) supports flash, this could develop into a cheap little anti-iPhone. It wouldn't require a bunch of additional purchases to play games, use social networks, etc. Even if it doesn’t succeed, there’s something good about the ideas at work.  

UPDATE: Looks like microsoft wasn't sure about the device either. In the midst of what looks like a rather expensive content integration campaign, the Kin line had it's fate sealed in favor of the upcoming windows phone 7. So it goes.