14 DAY TRIAL // Redmond-based software giant Microsoft has been long rumored to be working on a so-called Pink Project that would include the development of a mobile phone and a series of services associated with it, yet it seems that the company might put an end to the initiative. According to some of the latest news on the Web, the Pink Project is heading for the graveyard at great speed.
Although some images with the first products to surface from the Pink Project made it into the wild only a few weeks ago, in the form of two handsets supposedly called Turtle and Pure, Microsoft is still committed to not launching a mobile phone on the market, and the initiative is put to an end. A recent article on mobilecrunch shows that all hopes related to the Pink Project are being killed off and that sources familiar with the matter say the project will soon be canceled.
According to the piece, most of the people in the Danger/Sidekick team have left the scene since Microsoft acquired the company back in 2008, and the Pink team does not have the necessary resources to continue the work on a product. Moreover, in case the project will shape up into a final product, it will lack the third-party application support that it was supposed to surface to the market with.
Other “insights” on Pink also include: - Amongst remaining employees, dissent is high. Much of the team uses iPhones around the office, or their old Sidekick handsets. Employees “hate the product” internally, many feeling that the division exists only to “challenge [the Windows Mobile 7 team] and upset them into competing.” Our source outright indicated that they felt the product was never intended to ship. - At this point, the project is roughly 2 years behind schedule. In order to continue moving forward toward some undefined launch date, basics such as a calendar application have already ended up on the cutting room floor.
Some tidbits of info on the previously leaked phones also surfaced, including the fact that Turtle is supposedly featuring a touchscreen that cannot be used at the moment. The phone is quite small, and this is also a problem, as is the fact that its battery offers a reduced usage time. As for the UI on the handsets, it is said to have been delivered by a third party, and Microsoft's designers cannot figure out how to replicate it.
Things seem to be as bad as possible, in case these sayings prove true, that is. However, the Pink project was supposedly involving Microsoft's future Windows Mobile 7 platform, as well as a phone chassis, and, with a large number of engineers already working on the development of the next-generation operating system, we find it hard to believe that Microsoft's Pink team is doing as bad as mobilecrunch's sources state.