Microsoft is hard at work on its "Project Pink" mobile effort, and is designing both a premium mobile services platform and one or more Windows Mobile devices aimed at the teenage and twenty-something market, according to a ZDNet report.
Rumors have been swirling that the company, whose Windows Mobile platform has been under siege from other smartphone players, will unveil the Pink services and devices at Mobile World Congress next month in Barcelona, Spain. According to the report, both Pink devices and phones running on Windows Mobile 7 will begin shipping later this year, with the WinMo 7 devices expected in the fourth quarter.
Windows Mobile lost 28 percent market share between the third quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2009, according to research firm Gartner.
The rumors of a "Pink" device or program are not new. Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft was in discussions with Verizon Wireless to produce a touchscreen multimedia phone running its Windows Mobile platform as a rival to Apple's iPhone, code-named "Pink." The device was said to have additional software capabilities and feature Microsoft's Windows Marketplace for Mobile.
There also have been rumors in the past about another project dubbed "Pink," a possible Microsoft smartphone based on the software giant's Zune digital music player. The rumors said that the phone would use technology from Microsoft's acquisition of Danger, the company that brought the Sidekick to T-Mobile USA.
For more:
- see this ZDNet article
- see this Engadget post
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