Microsoft's 'Project Pink' Phones Hitting Verizon By SummerMicrosoft's 'Project Pink' Phones Hitting Verizon By Summer

As much as Microsoft has attempted to keep information about its Project Pink devices secret, details have been leaking all over the place. The latest leak came in the form of an advertisement that showed not only the two new phones, but Verizon Wireless's red swoosh, as well.The two Project Pink devices first leaked last fall. Both are sliders that offer full QWERTY keyboards for messaging. The hardware will be manufactured by Sharp, which has made the Sidekick line of devices for Danger (purchased by Microsoft in 2008) for years.

The Turtle and Pure, as they are being called, will not run Windows Phone 7. Instead, they'll run some as-yet unknown operating system. That OS will be geared towards the social networking crowd, so expect native apps for services such as Facebook, Twitter and others. Very little else is known about the devices themselves.

The FCC recently approved one of them -- the Turtle, or, in FCC parlance, the Sharp PB10ZU. Since the Turtle has cleared this regulatory hurdle, it's safe to assume that it will become available some time in the next few months. It is believed that Verizon is planning for an April launch of the Pink devices, but that hasn't been confirmed by either Microsoft or Verizon.

Given the big splash Microsoft recently made with Windows Phone 7, it's hard to digest why it is working on another mobile platform at the exact same time. Won't introducing two new mobile operating systems in the same year take away from both? Microsoft needs Windows Phone 7 to be a success. Project Pink my just punk WP7 by stealing sales from consumers who may otherwise have been tempted by WP7.