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Could the KIN be that phone? Here's hoping.

Take a look at a picture of a typical feature phone:

You'll notice that around 1/3 of the surface of the phone is taken up with number buttons. This is because in the old days telephones were used dialing numbers and then talking to people. Do you remember that time? It's quite a long while ago.

Dear Feature Phone, You're Dumber than a Bag of Hammers

Here's a question for you: When did you last type in a phone number on your phone? How many times have you dialed a number on your mobile phone in the past week?

I'd say that, at most I type one number a week. Usually none. Let's say 2 numbers a month.

And yet, 1/3 of the surface of the typical phone is taken up with this legacy. A device that is supposed to be portable and pocket sized, and 1/3 of its surface is consumed with supporting an edge case.

It's so incredibly thick it's hard to believe.

The Tyranny of Menus

Phones do a lot more besides making phone calls. As they've got more and more powerful, we've been treated to deeper and deeper menu with more and more choices. What's more, it seems that commonly used features are accessible from many different menus but always a whole bunch of clicks away.

I have a Cybershot camera. You'd think that viewing photos I've just taken would be a pretty core task here, right? And the phone gives me several ways to do it:

Media > Photo > Latest Photo
Menu > Organizer > File Manager > Camera Album
Menu > Camera > View

Three different unintuitive options requiring a minimum of 3 clicks so that I can show grandma the photo I just took of her with the baby. Worse than that, the options available to you for managing these photos is different depending on the route you took. It's ridiculous.

But hey, if I want to type in a phone number which I hardly ever do the whole device is just BEGGING to help me do it.

With web enabled phones, the problem gets even worse. Mobile web apps are nothing but menus, menus, menus. Want to get to Facebook on my phone? OK ... Menu > Organizer > Applications > Opera > Facebook ... and that just gets you to the home page. To find the status of my best friend is a whole bunch more clicks. In fact, it's never occurred to me to actually check a friend's status using my phone. I just view the home feed.

But hey, there are loads of touch screen phones out there. Aren't they the answer?

Touch screen feature phones do get rid of the number buttons, which we can be thankful for, but they're still stuck in a menu-mindset. Instead of thinking about what people use a phone for, they just try to make the menus a bit nicer to use.

Take the Samsung Tocco Lite:

Here's a quote from a glowing review:

Mobile widgets let you customise your home screen and give easy access to apps such as the clock, weather forecast, etc. There are also widgets for popular web apps such as MySpace, Facebook and YouTube.

Why I want to love the KIN

Now, the KIN is not an iPhone killer. It's not going to compete head on. The KIN is a feature handset designed for this decade. If the marketing wasn't so self consciously, irritatingly trendy then people would be pretty excited about it.

It's ditched the number keys! Typing numbers is an edge case on a modern phone, typing text isn't. So they've swapped it around -- now the numbers are buried behind letters, rather than burying the letters behind numbers. Smart move.

Even better, Microsoft has figured out what people really want to get from their feature phone, and they're delivering it:

1. Good quality photos that you can share and show off easily and immediately.
2. A quick way to communicate with all my friends using status updates -- and see what my best friends are doing at any time. (This might seem like a thing for teens -- but won't mums like it too, if they can have each of their children's latest status right there on the home screen at any time?)
3. Focus on texting, not typing numbers.
4. Putting people at the center. A phone is not a device about numbers, and its not a device about features at the end of menus. It's a device about people.

How often have you tried to call somebody, and then when there's no answer figured you'd better text them. Again, it's a really common case -- but on a feature handset its own that involves fiddling deep in menus. With the KIN, it'll all be under the WIFE button.

I applaud what Microsoft is doing with the KIN. It's an exciting development for feature phones. I'd be surprised if my next phone isn't a KIN or something like it.