More Kin Studio-like features on roadmap for WP7

At the world's biggest consumer technology show CES this week, Microsoft revealed more web app integration on par with Kin Studio is on the roadmap for their recently released mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7.

While the Kin -- a series of phones built around the social networking craze and released in the United States by Microsoft in April last year -- failed to gain traction in the competitive smartphone market and has since been axed, part of the online integration found in the series of devices may live on albeit under a different name and look, namely Kin Studio.

Kin Studio, a free service for Kin owners which is set to close down at the end of the month, was an online service which promised to backup and store media from the array of Kin devices including photos, contacts, videos and messages.

Microsoft's director of the mobile communications business at Microsoft, Aaron Woodman, reportedly confirmed to The Seattle Times, that a number of features found in the Kin Studio service may soon find their way into a future Windows Phone 7 update.

"We have a very, very small baby step with Windows Phone Live," Woodman told the site. "It's definitely part of the road map to have enriched services that make the phone more meaningful, and the Web more meaningful."

While no date for the release of the new features was announced, Woodman suggests that better integration with online services, such as the already available integration with Microsoft's X-Box Live and Windows Phone Live services, will be one of the defining ways Windows Phone 7 can compete with other platforms such as Google's Android operating system.