by dave on April 11th, 2010 /
Category: News
After what must be years of rumors, Mashable is reporting that Microsoft is set to launch their “Project Pink” social networking phones tomorrow during a live webcast.
With the slogans “We’re For Sharing” and “It’s Time to Share” in bold across some leaked promotional material, two new social networking-oriented phones are going to verizon: the Turtle and the Pure, pictured below.
These two devices reflect a more hands-on approach to handset design for Microsoft. The specs for Project Pink phones have been floating around for some time and were at one point rumored to be the Windows 7 Chassis.
It turns out Project Pink is the result of Microsoft working closely with Sharp to design these handsets specifically geared towards social networking.
Beyond the heavy social networking integration (have to wait for tomorrow for more details), its thought that MS will also announce some new online services tailored to the Pink line.
Head back over to the Microsoft site April 12th at 10am PT to see the webcast launch of the new Microsoft Project Pink phones!
[via]
Microsoft and Sharp appear set to launch their combined effort at lower-end, teen/20-something targeted phones known as Pink phones, possibly as early as this April.
Gizmodo recently reported that two of these Sharp-made and possibly Microsoft-branded phones, codenamed “Pure” and “Lion”have hit the FCC. Considering the recent re-branding of Windows Mobile 6.5-based Windows Phones to “Windows Phone Classic Edition”, I think it is likely that these will be the first Windows Phone Classic Edition devices we see.
One of Mary Jo’s readers who says he’s looked at the files on these devices says:
“Pure and Lion are the higher end devices for these right now. HVGA display, CE OS6, Silverlight, and Brand new. I am looking at 561 *.dll files that make up the 100MB ROM. A lot of center around Zune in the Registry.
“Looks like Home screen has different feeds,” the reader said. The Pink devices “will be provided with firmware updates OTA (over the air.”
Mary Jo wrote a great piece outlining the pros and cons of Microsoft launching a branded phone of their own – you should check it out.
by dave on March 1st, 2010 /
Category: News
Last year some smartphone specs were leaked out of Microsoft that many guessed were Microsoft’s Project Pink Chassis: a.k.a. the magical Zune Phone. Well Mary Jo Foley over at ZDnet seems to think that this Chassis was actually part of an evolving discussion at Microsoft on how to lock down their phone ecosystem so that they had fewer hardware partners that were required to adhere to much stricter specifications.
On a recent “Frankly Speaking” podcast (feb 20) the Microsoft Australia Developer Evangelist hosts Michael Kordahi and Andrew Coates discuss the three different chassis that will be available for Windows Phone 7 Series devices. Chassis 1, which was the one in circulation already, was for big, touchscreen-only devices with 1GHz processors a-la HTC HD2.
Chassis 2 phones will feature hardware keyboads – either Palm Treo-esque or of the sliding QWERTY variety – and touchscreens. Then there was Chassis 3, which they guessed might be candybar form factor.
They suggested that Chassis 1 devices would be the first out of the gates around Christmas, but offered no details on when the Chassis 2 and 3 devices might be available. We’ve already seen a prototype of the LG “Chassis 2” type design, with a sliding QWERY keyboard, so maybe we’ll see more than just Chassis 1 devices at Christmas?
The sheer variety of hardware devices available will certainly be one of the main advantages of Windows Phone 7. By locking in some rigorous hardware requirements for partners and OEM manufacturers Microsoft can ensure a consistent user experience across a broad spectrum of devices.
by dave on October 16th, 2009 /
Category: News
After the massive T-Mobile Sidekick outage last week Roz Ho from Microsoft has put out a full apology to T-Mobile users. What is of note here is that Roz is the Roz Ho Corporate VP of “Premium Mobile Experiences” at Microsoft and is working on Pink, the chassis framework for Windows Mobile 7 Windows Phones. Edward over at MSmobiles suspects this means that the big “microsoft phone” that is always rumored is in fact just the next Sidekick.
I’ve always found Microsoft’s purchase of Danger ages ago curious, considering the lack of any significant movement on their mobile platform in years now. I’ve just been giving them credit for seeing the big picture: Danger’s Sidekick had some really neat features when it first came out with server-based management of every single Sidekick out there – all your data was stored on the Danger servers and could be accessed through the web, long before Microsoft MyPhone was even conceived of. This ultimately led to the big blackout last week.
This system is similar to the BES (BlackBerry server) style solution from RIM, which is one of their main competitive advantages over both all of their competition. Could Microsoft be looking to deploy a BIS/BES-type network in the future? Offering enterprise the same ultra-secure and manageable environment as the BlackBerry, built on Danger’s original device management systems and integrated with Microsoft’s server solutions (i.e. OS and Exchange)?
This would give Microsoft some of the benefits of Apple and RIM’s vertical market strategy. While RIM tries to tackle the consumer market and Apple tries to prove itself to the Enterprise market, maybe Microsoft – with its patience and experience – has been quietly planning to trump them all?
Time will tell…
Thoughts?
by dave on September 29th, 2009 /
Category: News
In a recent interview with TechCrunch, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reiterated that there will be NO MICROSOFT PHONE. Ok, ok. Somehow I still don’t believe him…
