The KIN ONE was first available for $49.99, and the KIN TWO for $99.99, but by June had dropped to $0 and $50 (with a 2-year contract of course) respectively.

Now Verizon has reportedly halted all Kin sales and begun shipping back any that remain unsold.

They never really caught on, and in a crowded smartphone marketplace competition is fierce.

“The Kins are misbegotten, crippled creatures compared to pretty much every smartphone on the market,” noted a PCMag review. “They’ve been priced as smartphones, with smartphone data plans, and they’re being sold as smartphones, so the comparisons are fair.”

Personally, I can say that I’ve never even seen or heard of anybody who had one. Can you?

“The price cuts could help: they make the Kin 1 a free phone, and while it’s not as functional as a high-end smartphone, it’s better than a lot of the basic phones that most carriers give away for free,” said Directions on Microsoft analyst Matt Rosoff. “The data plan still seems a bit steep, but if it’s purchased in the context of a family plan, it’s not so bad.”

Best Buy’s new prices bring the Kin smartphones more in line with the “dumb phones” on the market.

Verizon Wireless however, still sells each for $50 and $100 respectively online.

The new prices, at least in Best Buy, could finally convince people to purchase the phone now that it is much cheaper than better performing, though more expensive, alternative handsets like Apple’s iPhone or the Motorola Droid.

Now if only Verizon would reconsider that pesky $30p/mo data pricing plan and some parents may actually consider buying their kids a phone specifically designed for the social networking crowd.

Both KIN phones feature a touch screen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, making it easy to:

• Always stay in the loop: With the KIN Loop, all of your favorite people and things you love are right on your home screen in real time. You tell KIN who and what is important, and it delivers the latest updates from your favorite websites and social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. You can discover and share, all from one place.
• Share your story with the world: The KIN Spot is the new way to share. Share almost anything – photos, texts, Web pages – with almost anyone. Since the Spot is always on your screen, it’s unbelievably easy to drop stuff into the Spot and send by text, e-mail or social network update.
• Your phone, on the Web: With the KIN Studio, almost everything on your phone – messages, contacts, photos and videos – are backed up to a private, password-protected website where you can visit all of your memories anywhere there is a computer. And with virtually unlimited storage, there’s almost no limit to what you can keep.
• Capture and share all your memories: The KIN Camera captures all the moments that matter most, and makes it easy to share them. The KIN ONE has a 5 MP lens while the KIN TWO has an 8 MP lens and shoots video in HD. With anti-shake, autofocus and an LED flash, KIN lets you take amazing pictures, even in low light, and post or share them with just one touch. And all your memories are backed up with tons of storage in the KIN Studio.
• Tunes and info – at your fingertips: Find what you need on the go:
  • Zune – KIN is the first Windows Phone to feature a Zune experience – including music, video, FM radio and podcast playback. With a Zune Pass subscription and Zune software on your PC, you can listen to millions of songs from Zune Marketplace on your KIN while on the go or load from your personal collection.
  • Bing – Web and Near Me (location-based) search.
  • E-mail – Support for all popular Web-based mail, POP/IMAP services, as well as Exchange for business e-mail and contact sync. Each e-mail account has its own screen so it’s easy to navigate.
  • Browser – With KIN, you get full, rich PC-like browsing. You can pan, scan and zoom in and out using touch gestures. And browsing is social; it’s easy to share a snapshot of the website you’re viewing by dragging it to the Spot.

KIN ONE is available for $49.99, and KIN TWO is available for $99.99, both after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement.

Dubbed “Project Pink,” the smart phones models will have easy access to a number of different social-networking sites and include keyboards for easier text messaging.

The Project Pink phones are seen as Microsoft’s latest challenge to both Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android OS-based smartphones. Microsoft hasn’t had much success with its Windows-based phones in a market dominated by Apple and with Google quickly making inroads.

Until now, Microsoft has focused on providing its mobile Windows software to phone makers, rather than offering a model under its own brand. The move would echo Google Inc.’s decision to sell the Nexus One phone, which uses that company’s Android operating system. Microsoft is seeking to win back market share in the phone market after Android and Apple Inc.’s iPhone lured away customers from Windows.

By teaming up with Verizon, Microsoft seems to be taking a different path to market than Apple and Google with what would perhaps be its signature smart phone entry.

The only problem with Microsoft and Google entering the market as a handset manufacturer is the risk it poses to the relationships with other handset makers whom they convinced to use their respective OSs. Their competition is going to be awfully leery of using their software if it’s viewed as providing an additional economic advantage in the marketplace.