Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"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.

"This brassy little number is the LG "Monaco," which is apparently also known as the "Pico" to some folks; what it'll eventually be called at retail is anyone's guess, but the big news is the feature list: 3.6Mbps HSDPA, a 3.2-inch WVGA display, 5 megapixel AF cam, microSD expansion, an add-on pico projector of some sort, and Windows Mobile 7."

Although destined for AT&T, you might have to wait a while for the Monaco to turn up - unless they slap WM6.5 on this. Engadget also mentions that the Monaco doesn't fulfill WM7 hardware criteria due to the slightly smaller screen, so I wonder if we really will see this running WM7. I admit to being a little unexcited by the known specs or the design, though I imagine both will be subject to change. If this had been released a year ago it might have been top dog, but now (sans projector) it looks strictly middle of the road.