14 DAY TRIAL // More and more rumors have surfaced lately the Web pointing out that Microsoft might be on its way to unveil a mobile phone that would be called either the Zune Phone or Pink. The company was recently reported to plan on updating the hardware part of its Zune digital media players, and that it would come to the market with a Zune HD sometime in the fall of 2009.
Given the fact that the Redmond company is expected to update not only the hardware of the media players, but the services associated with Zune as well, rumors that Pink won't be only something connected to the hardware part of a phone but with the services to come with the handset too have also surfaced on the web.
We already know that the software giant is working on a range of services targeted at mobile phone users and, since Pink is said to come along with a series of consumer-focused, premium mobile services, things are starting to make a bit of sense in a way. Only that Microsoft stated clearly a while ago that no mobile phone to bear its name would come to the market, and that turns everything into a big dilemma.
However, things are starting to take shape somehow, as, though denying any plans to launch its own handsets, the Redmond company is still working on some smartphone reference implementations, and we already reported that they refer to some sort of multiple phone chassis, which could very well be what the Pink project refers to.
According to Mary Jo Foley, this would be the strongest theory when it comes to Microsoft and any possible Pink or Zune phone. In addition, she also says that only the chassis of the device will be provided by the company, and not the entire phone, along with the set of mobile services tied up to it, which are expected to come both from the Danger crew working at Microsoft and from the Zune team.
The bottom line is that a possible Microsoft mobile phone will actually be built by another company, though the Redmond team will be involved in this all the way from the beginning, yet it is rather unlikely to see the device on the market wearing Microsoft's branding. At the same time, it seems that it will turn into a piece of hardware totally different from other WM-powered handsets, though it is built upon the Windows Mobile 7 core engine.
As many of you might already know, the upcoming WM 7 operating system is expected to turn into a platform that could provide a user experience a lot different from what other releases of the OS have been able to offer. Microsoft will make some steps into that direction with WM 6.5, which comes with an enhanced UI, and will make further changes in WM 7, which should become official in the first half of 2010. In case the Pink project indeed includes a Windows Mobile 7-powered mobile phone, more details on it should surface then.