Here are a bunch more rumors about Microsoft's Project Pink, courtesy of Paul at MoDaCo, most making total sense and overlapping what we've already heard.
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Running the show has been Microsoft's "PMX" team -- Premium Mobile Experience -- which includes the assets gained from the purchase of Sidekick-maker Danger. - Verizon's the main carrier on board, though other agreements are in place.
- The "Turtle" sports a 3.5mm headphone jack and a 5-megapixel camera. The "Pure" camera is 8 megapixels.
- Both devices are dual branded with Microsoft and Sharp.
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The OS has the same kernel as Windows Mobile 7, but won't look or feel like WM7. The UI is written in Silverlight and uses Seadragon. Looks kinda familiar. - Zune HD software and Xbox integration are on board.
- As these are targeted toward the mass market, parental controls are on board.
- There is a unified messaging experience. (Should be interesting to see how it matches up against the Palm Pre.)
- Turtle and Pure will get their own launch party, not at CES.
Keep an eye on the MoDaCo thread, as Paul promises more details.
Reader comments
More rumored details on Microsoft's 'Project Pink' phones
All logical rumors/conclusions IMO. My only frustration was not seeing a full-out d-pad (which would scream Xbox gaming.) Keyboard buttons could substitute for that, but not as effectively. And with 2 different screen aspect ratios that also makes it less likely (although one could be marketed as the multimedia-only device and one as the gaming plus everything else device.) The Xbox brand is the strongest entertainment consumer brand MS has and I think they should embrace that for all its worth (i.e., give me the Xbox phone.)
A lot of people here may gripe because these devices aren't targeted at the typical WM user . . . and that's precisely the point. A lot of us may love the customization and power we have available at our fingertips. But MS is likely not going to gain marketshare by continuing its current tact. At best they're going to hold what they have.
This class device perfectly straddles the lines between offering up a premium end-to-end Zune/Xbox/early-iPhone-like experience while still keeping them out of the class of competing directly with their traditional smarthphone OEM partners . . . who are increasingly flirting with Android anyway (thus, this is a great way to hedge their bets.)
While it may be a bit young in the targeting for most readers here, I'm actually glad to see MS going more aggressively after a younger market. That's what Apple has done with its marketing. By becoming popular with kids who were then in their teens/twenties they were able to build brand loyalty that paid off as they became adults.
Keyboard buttons often can't substitute for a D-pad, depending on how they're wired. Typically mobile handsets can only detect a keypress at a time.
I speak as one who tried to do NES emulation on his Mogul. It has a D-pad, but gaming sucked because if I was running with the D-pad then hit a button to shoot, it would stop detecting the direction I was running. Boo.
I remember those issues well. Made NES emulation on our phones largely worthless. However, if the hardware's designed from the ground up with that intent in mind it could work (although I think it would still be a poor alterative to a proper d-pad.)
While these phones will no doubt support some form of games, I don't think/hope these are meant to be the full mobile compliment to the Xbox.
is it me or are all these articles implying that these phone are suped up feature phones and not smartphones?
It's a fine line, right? I mean this will have a software store where you can download/install software and presumably developers can make software for it, which is like a smartphone.
It's getting hard to tell these days.
Yeah, I think there needs to be a serious discussion about what constitutes a "feature phone." ... With all the APIs and hooks out there these days, the line's definitely blurred.
For me its just will verizon force me to get a $30 plan or not. LOL
Omg, the ui done in silverlight!? that is the best news about these devices I've read so far!
All I can say is, if you think iphone apps look slick, you've seen nothing yet when you see what a silverlight app can do and looks like. This is AWESOME news. I can't wait to get started developing for these now!
stop making the remake lol
i think they look quite jarring... it would have looked amazing 10 years ago, but now it just looks like a really old prototype...