Windows Phone Thoughts: More Background on Microsoft's Problems With Pink

"Earlier this week, an anonymous tipster leaked the news that Microsoft's top secret Pink project, aimed to take on the iPhone just as the Zune targeted the iPod, was "near death and probably will be canceled." Another source has now spilled even more details about the internal crisis brewing within the company and how the failure of Pink relates to iPhone, Google's Android, and Windows Mobile."

Normally you wouldn't see me linking to something at AppleInsider, let alone something by Apple ultra-fanboy Daniel Eran Dilger, but this article has the ring of truth to it - at least, insofar as anything about Microsoft can be reported truthfully at an Apple blog. I know a couple of people on the Premium Mobile Experiences team, and they've remained tight-lipped about what they've been working on - but it seems clear now they've been working on Pink given some clues that are now obvious in hindsight.

If the article is accurate about all the trouble that Pink is now in as a product (or platform), it would certainly explained the fragmented and dazed strategies from the Windows Mobile team - if a company can't come together with a cohesive plan for mobility, they're not going to come up with what they need to compete with the likes of Apple, Google, RIM, and Nokia. Was Pink merely a ploy to motivate the Windows Mobile team into kicking it into high gear? No, I don't think so - the people I know on the Premium Mobile Experiences are smart and talented, and wouldn't waste their efforts on something unless they felt it would have an impact on that market. So what exactly is the future of Pink? Time will tell...