Oh, this probably isn't good.

Verizon has slashed the prices of the Kin One and Kin Two, a pair of phones developed by Microsoft for a younger, social-networking-centric demographic (see: teenagers and angel-headed hipsters). The stubby Kin One, previously priced at $49.99, now retails for $29.99 with a two-year plan; the rectangular Kin Two, previously priced at $99.99, now costs a mere $49.99. In addition to making calls, the phones display updates from the user's social network -- but unlike on a smartphone, there's no way to access third-party apps.

Neither Microsoft nor Verizon has released hard sales data on the Kin phones, which debuted in stores on May 13. But Verizon has a habit of radically slashing the prices of underperforming devices--it did the exact same thing with the Palm Pre. By reducing the Kin phones' prices by one-half, the carrier might as well be waving a banner announcing, "EPIC FAIL."

If there's anything at fault here, it's the monthly calling plan: $69.99 for unlimited minutes, plus $29.99 for data. That's the premium level; if you're willing to constrict yourself to 450 minutes, then the monthly access fee comes to $39.99, on top of the $29.99. I know a lot of parents would be unwilling to spend $70 to $90 per month on their kid's phone, and I don't know a lot of teenagers who self-generate enough income to spend that sort of money lightly.

But the Kin franchise has other issues, as well. The phones lack Flash support for the browser; the social-networking feeds aren't updated in real time; and there are no games, which Microsoft officials have tried to suggest isn't an impediment to the phones' adoption. I disagree on that last point. Take a ride on the New York City subway at around 3:45 and tell me how many teenagers aren't playing games on some sort of phone or portable device.

Reviews of the Kin phones were decidedly mixed; there was some praise for Kin Studio, which allows users to upload their content to the cloud, but a number of tech Websites expressed reservations about the phones' hardware and, well, their plan pricing.

"Success will depend on how well Studio and Windows Live support integrate with the phone, and since only Microsoft can deploy a new service to the device, how well it does so is critical," Jack Gold, principal analyst of J. Gold Associates, wrote in a research note ahead of the Kin launch. "Success will also depend on what types of service plans are available, how they're priced and how good the service is (i.e., the AT&T/iPhone fiasco would be a killer for Kin). Finally, what specialized services will the carriers offer to try and garner some of the potential cloud revenue?"

If Kin is really doing its best imitation of a sinking boat, then that's unfortunate; a social-networking device could conceivably have caught on with a broad audience. During an April presentation in New York, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff--not exactly Microsoft's favorite person at the moment, come to think of it--displayed a graph showing the number of social-networking users surpassing e-mail users; Benioff used that data as justification for the Salesforce Chatter collaboration platform.

Plus, everyone and their mother seems glued to either Facebook or Twitter. In other words, the foundation is there for a successful device; but if Verizon's price cut is any indication--and coupled with a lack of hard sales data, that's pretty much all we have to go on--something about the Kin just isn't resonating with users.