What Is Pink? It Ain't No ZunePhone.

If you hadn't heard, the latest swirl of ZunePhone rumors have been well and truly smacked down again, to much rejoicing. That hasn't kept the internet from chasing the next rumor ball like a bunch of 8-year-old soccer players. This time around it's 'Project Pink,' and the leaders of this particular pack are Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet and Paul Thurrot, who both speculate that Project Pink has something to do with:

  • Zune Mobile services (instead of hardware)
  • The technology arising from the Danger/Sidekick acquisition
  • Unicorns

Ok, we added that last one and to be perfectly honest, their speculation rings quite true to us. How about this for some fun: Engadget's post on the subject reminds us that both Danger and Zune are in the “PMX Group” (that's Premium Mobile Experiences to you). Taking a look at PMX, where the relevant groups are situated, led us to a fun little nugget.

After the break, some connections and the deets on just where we found that logo we slapped inside the Fuze above.

Here's the relevant passage from the Danger acquisition Press Release (opens in new tab):

“We imagine a mobile experience that embraces sharing and celebrating relationships and personal moments,” Ho said. “Combining Danger and Microsoft talents together in the Premium Mobile Experiences team is how we’re going to deliver cool, new, fun mobile experiences to consumers. We want people to smile every time they look at their phone.”The Danger mobile Internet platform, which connects people to their social circles and other rich content, is an integrated end-to-end solution that enables people to interact with their friends, social communities and content through the Internet and Internet services.

So PMX is definitely consumer oriented, it's definitely not a Microsoft-made ZunePhone, it definitely does involve Sidekick-style services, and it definitely should be fun.

But is it definitely related to 'Pink?' Could be, could be. How about this, we find via go ahead, mac my day (opens in new tab) this channel 9 interview with the VP of PMX, Roz Ho:

(opens in new tab)

Ahem. Yes, that is a very pink office. And yes, there is a very nice pink logo with birds on it. And yes, a large group of folks talking about contact lists. And yes, a lot of playful joking about top secret projects. There's not anything we can draw conclusions from, of course (as noted in the comments), but Ho is definitely talking about working on something big and something secret in the mobile space.

Ok, well, more importantly she's telling her story and generally offering up a great example of how to become a cool, engaging, and successful leader in the corporate world. Yeah, we noticed, we're not made of stone.

Anyway, we really don't know what Pink is, but it's pretty safe to say that it will be something related to mobile services and, well, that it's something they're working on.

What do you think it is?

WC Staff
3 Comments
  • 8-year old soccer playing pink unicorns = EPIC post!
    Why no ZunePhone, though? While not financially successful, both Xbox and Zune show some good products can come out of Microsoft being a little more integrated in their offerings?
  • Why no ZunePhone, though? While not financially successful, both Xbox and Zune show some good products can come out of Microsoft being a little more integrated in their offerings?Indeed. People like to talk about the strong 'end-to-end' experience of Apple products since they control both the hardware and software side of the equation. However Microsoft has proven just as capable on their two main ventures into that space. I'd actually argue the Zune is a stronger end-to-end experience than the iPod these days . . . which is why I'm eager to see some sort of Zune-like features on MS-powered phones soon.
  • I own a Zune. I met a Zune exec at a meetup in NYC, and was told that Zune is evolving along software lines. I was thinking about this today. Microsoft may be returning to what it does best: software. I kind of think Apple does have one thing right - making seamless hardware/software products. I thought that the Zune phone might had been a step in that direction. The last Zune commercial spot I saw was of the rapper Common talking about the Zune software; the Zune mp3 player wasn't figured prominently. Maybe, Zune may be coming to Windows Mobile? One big converged Microsoft platform? Hmmmm...