Rumor: Microsoft Abandoning Pink Cellphone Project

Posted 10/09/2009 at 2:43pm | by Pulkit Chandna

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After Gizmodo crowned constant rumors of a Zune phone by posting the first pictures of two phones it claimed were part of Microsoft’s secret "Pink" phone family, other rumormongers scampered to find (or fabricate) more Pink rumors. Now, rumors of Pink’s prenatal demise are assuming pace.

MobileCrunch was recently approached by an anonymous source “with a seemingly exhaustive knowledge of Microsoft’s Project Pink.” Their source told them that it is highly unlikely that the Pink will ever see the light of day and cited many reasons for its imminent scrapping.

Apple Insider has also found its anonymous knight in stealthy armor. It identified its source as a Microsoft/Danger insider. For those of you who don’t know, Danger is the company that developed the T-Mobile Sidekick before being bought by Microsoft for $500 million in 2008. Danger is rumored to have been converted into “Pink”.

The insider source echoed the claims made by MobileCrunch’s source. But then the anonymous-source ego came into the picture and he made a desperate attempt to prove his superioriy as the more conscientious anonymous source of the two. He believes that the person who originally spilled the beans is clearly a “disgruntled former or current employee.”

“I have my share of disgruntlement about the situation, but it never occurred to me to do something like that. This is actually the worst possible timing for Microsoft for this information to come out (on the heels of the awful reviews of WM 6.5), and I suspect that it has already caused irreparable damage to their relationships with a number of key partners, to which I say, 'Bravo, leaker, well played.' Now allow me to twist the knife...,” he said. He is quite certain that Microsoft had intentionally leaked photos of “Pure” and “Turtle” – the two Pink phones.

But the move seems to have backfired as the tepid response to the leaks seems to have given Microsoft cold feet. I hope you are in the vicinity of a few grains of salt.

Image Credit: Gizmodo