Microsoft's 'Pink' phones: What's inside?
Gizmodo has unearthed some more details about Microsoft's forthcoming Pink phones: Verizon seems to be one of the carriers (if not the only carrier initially) for the "Turtle" model of what's shaping up to be the successor to the current Sidekicks.
(Giz also has some admittedly blurry pictures that allegedly are of another of the Pink phones, codenamed "Pure.")
Sharp is expected to be the manufacturer of at least some of however many Pink phones Microsoft ends up fielding. Microsoft is expected to show off the Pink phones some time in the coming month or so -- right around the time of the upcoming CTIA Wireless conference.
I'm still interested in learning more about the software and services that end up powering Pink. What's going to be offered as part of the Premium Mobile Services (PMX) that are expected to be part of the Microsoft-branded Pink phones? Tipsters have said to expect the usual social-networking things, a Pink Twitter client, Zune music/video services. But what else?
And what is the operating system on those Pink phones? Initially, I had heard Windows Mobile 7 (now known as Windows Phone 7 OS). But then I started hearing it was more likely to be a new version of the Danger OS. (The Pink team is comprised largely of the Danger folks Microsoft acquired in 2008.)
One enthusiast (and custom ROM maker) who goes by the name "Conflipper," has been looking into Pink and recently discovered that Microsoft seems to have four different Pink form factors (the aformentioned "Turtle," plus "Pure," "Lion," and "Pride"). When I asked Conflipper on March 4 what the operating system inside the Pink phones might be, he said it "seems to be similar to the Zune HD OS, based on how the layout of everything is."
Conflipper's been posting some interesting photos himself via TwitPic today. Here's his photo of the alleged default contact photo on Pink.
The Zune HD operating system is one of the influences for Windows Phone OS 7.0, but the two operating systems are not identical. (Both are based on the Windows CE operating system core, however.) Microsoft officials have declined to say whether the (very few) Zune HD apps will be able to run on Windows Phone 7 devices (and vice versa).
It also will be interesting to see whether the Pink phones will break backward compatibility with the existing Sidekicks running the Danger OS -- the same way Microsoft is seemingly breaking compatibility between Windows Mobile 6.x phones and Windows Phone 7 devices -- and what the existing Sidekick users think of that strategy.