Microsoft To Announce Project PinkMicrosoft To Announce Project Pink

Microsoft has steadfastly maintained that it wouldn't jump into the phone business, but rumors about Project Pink have been swirling for months. We still don't have any official information, other than Microsoft is ready to make an official announcement next week on April 12.Project Pink has nothing to do with Windows Phone 7. Instead this project was born out of the T-Mobile build Danger device, the Sidekick. Microsoft purchased Danger in 2008, and other than temporarily losing everyone's data last fall, we haven't really seen much out of the acquisition. Now, according to the Wall Street Journal, they are ready to announce the new line of phones.

Microsoft isn't actually building the devices. They have contracted with Sharp for that. They did design the OS, online services and hardware, but will partner with carriers to bring the device to market, much like Danger originally did with the Sidekick when T-Mobile released it. The device will focus on social networking so will probably have Twitter, Facebook and a few other popular services built in. According to the article, Pink will bear a family resemblance to Windows Phone 7, but won't run the same apps. I suspect it won't have many of the same features either, like Exchange ActiveSync for corporate email and syncing capabilities with the Zune desktop software and music store.

Since devices of this class are also for the more cost conscience shopper like teens and those that are only interested in social networking, the hardware should be lighter than that needed to run WinPho 7 devices.

Hopefully on Monday Microsoft will give some of these details. Initially Verizon will be the carrier partner and will probably be at the San Francisco event.