Microsoft Corp launched a line of phones aimed at young people (Kin phones) on Monday

Microsoft Corp launched a line of phones aimed at young people on Monday, marking a fresh assault on the low end of the growing smartphone market, where it has been losing out to BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, Apple Inc and Google Inc.

The software company’s first foray into designing its own phones comes six months before it rolls out its new Windows software for phones made by handset makers HTC, Samsung and others, which should be a more direct challenge to Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android phones.

The new phones launched on Monday, called Kin One and Kin Two, are made by Japan’s Sharp Corp and will be sold by Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group.(Reuters)

Google Phone : Android Dev Phone See for Yourself

Android Dev Phone

An image on the Android Dveloper site is apparently the HTC-made successor to the Android Dev Phone 1, and is already in the hands of select Google employees.Back in November Michael Arrington of Reported we would see a super-powered, Google-branded phone in early 2010. Arrington’s reports appear to be getting some serious confirmation as Google employees are tweeting they’re testing new devices running Android 2.1.

The new phone on Google’s site shows a Bravo-like HTC model labeled ADP 2 alongside the Android Dev Phone 1. Google offers no information about the ADP 2 on the site — just the image — but tweets indicate the phone Google staff is playing with is also a GSM-unlocked phone.

According to the tweets, the phone is made by HTC, has a trackball and a high-resolution OLED display, and is “like an iPhone on beautifying steroids.”

The phone’s hardware sounds to be an awful lot like the HTC Bravo (aka Passion/Dragon) that was featured in HTC’s leaked 2010 roadmap and captured in leaked photos back in October.

TechCrunch is confident the phone will launch in January and be sold directly by Google as an unlocked GSM phone. However, even if the phone is surfacing, direct sales are not confirmed.

Typically tweets should be taken with skepticism, but Google confirmed the existence of a test device that was handed out to employees, but could not release any specific details on the product. Here’s Google’s statement:

“We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.”