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!
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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.
