Windows Phone Thoughts: Pinch Me - Microsoft To Issue Own-Brand Phones?

"Weekend gossip that has Microsoft and Sharp "unleashing" a pair of slider phones codenamed "Turtle" and "Pure" in January (likely at CES). JoFo thinks that it's possible that the rumored handsets could be announced in January, but any phone from Microsoft's Pink skunkworks project wouldn't launch until Windows Mobile 7 was ready, an OS not expected to ship on consumer devices until the end of 2010."

We have two reports from Engadget Mobile that Project Pink (here and here), which involves Microsoft's purchase of Danger (the makers of the Sidekick), is finally seeing some results. At this stage, virtually nothing is known about what specs or even which OS these devices will run, though I don't see Microsoft muddying their mobile strategy further by coming up with another ecosystem beyond Windows Mobile (or alternatively Zune). If WM7 is the target OS, that means these first two prototypes won't be on the market for another year, but given that these are relatively uncharted waters for Microsoft I'm not too surprised at the pace of development. I'm also thinking that with the ever tighter integration between software, hardware and services that the smartphone competitive space is moving towards, Microsoft is taking their time to get it right.