Rumor has it Microsoft is on the verge of axing the Pink Project. Come on, you remember those Pure Turtle phones we’ve been hearing about for months? The ones built by the former Danger/Sidekick team that might run Zune software and compete for the hearts and minds of tweens (TM PalmCast) everywhere? Yeah, those. Axed. Finished. Ballmered.

Seems like since their dear leader Andy Rubin left to father Android for Google, things have been on something of a downward spiral:

Amongst remaining employees, dissent is high. Much of the team uses iPhones around the office, or their old Sidekick handsets. Employees “hate the product” internally, many feeling that the division exists only to “challenge [the Windows Mobile 7 team] and upset them into competing.” Our source outright indicated that they felt the product was never intended to ship.

Malatesta from WMExperts.com is hearing conflicting stories, so take the above with a FUD-sized grain of salt. Still, even if Pink isn’t dead, given what’s left of the Danger team, the designs we’ve seen leaked so far, and the fact that Windows Mobile needs all the help it can get right now, maybe it ought to be?

[MobileCrunch via WMExperts]

Some feel there’s got to be more to this Microsoft Pink platform, Turtle and Pure phone concept than meets the eye. We’re wondering if, like Newman on Seinfeld, there’s actually less?

Could it really just be a Microsoft Sidekick running Zune HD software?

On the face, we’d say that’s crazy. Microsoft already has Windows Mobile 6.5, Windows Mobile 7, and the Zune HD on the market, would they really fragment their offering further by releasing an Instinct-class consumer phone?

Anyone else, never. Microsoft, absolutely.

In their defense, they’ve said Windows 7 will be their iPhone killa, while Windows 6.5 targets Android. These bad boys? We’re honestly not sure…

However, going this route does mean they likely won’t stab their WinMo hardware partners where it hurts, the way they did their MP3 player partners when they abandoned PlaysForSure and released the Zune…

[Gizmodo via WMExperts]

So the Zune HD is out, Windows Mobile 6.5 is starting to come out, Windows Mobile 7 will come out end of next year, and all of this relates to project Pink and new rumors of device code-names Pure and Turtle, and a Surface-related tablet just how exactly?

Sigh. Microsoft is like that cousin that we just know could be great but somehow keeps getting turned around, lost, and otherwise just not-quite delivering on it’s amazing potential. Imagine if they had one division, making one platform, and all that effort and integration went into delivering a killer XboxPhone in time for the holidays this year? And don’t hate on us for saying that, even our sibling site WMExperts is pounding the integration drum.

Back in the real world, however, Microsoft is said to be using a 2-prong strategy, Windows Mobile 6.5 now to compete with Android, and Windows Mobile 7 next year to compete with the iPhone (which, if Apple keeps up with their own roadmap, will be on its 4th hardware revision and running iPhone OS 4.0 — a moving target indeed).

The Zune HD meanwhile is positioned somewhere between the original and current iPod touch.

Microsoft is also rumored to be working on a tablet, based on their big-@$$ Surface table, to market against Apple’s still unannounced iTablet/iPad. Surface uses infrared camera technology, and required a huge basin to house all that hardware, so no doubt this will be Surface in name only (because who wants a 4 foot thick tablet, right?)

And on top of that, Microsoft is still working on Project Pink, which is a giant unknown, except it might be using Danger (makers of the Sidekick, bought out by Microsoft), and might be a Microsoft phone (though Microsoft swears they aren’t making a phone — just like Steve Jobs said no one wanted video on an iPod).

Pure and Turtle would then be these Danger-developed, Sidekick-like handsets running Windows Mobile 7, with on-board Zune software to handle the media layer?

Yeah, we don’t know either. Would that — Sidekick hardware running WinMo7 and Zune HD interface — be competitive with an 4th gen iPhone running iPhone 4.0?

We’re only a year away from knowing….

[Via WMExperts via 9to5mac]

On the eve of Microsoft releasing its new Zune HD platform (the one targeted at competing with the iPod touch), Windows Super-siter, Paul Thurrott is reporting that the still nascent plain vanilla Zune platform (the one targeted at competing with the iPod touch and classic) is being abandoned. (Shades of PlaysForSure?)

Likewise, the Wall Street Journal breaks word that Microsoft’s general manager of Zune marketing, Chris Stephenson is also being discontinued, leaving to take a position at Universal’s Interscope Geffen A&M Records.

The Zune HD admittedly looks like a more-than-compelling competitor to the 2007 iPod touch (the 2009 model, well have to see), and has bloggers strangely enthused, but it’s curious Microsoft is cutting support for previous players at the same time. Though Apple also believes them to be a dwindling market, rumor has it we’ll see camera-sporting iPod nano and classic come next Wednesday.

Could this actually be a sign of Microsoft gaining some much-needed focus? And will the logical, and still denied, ZunePhone be next? (And what would that mean for current Windows Mobile ODMs?)

(We’re still hoping for an XboxPhone instead!)

[Via Daring Fireball]

Despite frequent, repeated denials from Microsoft that they aren’t making a Zune Phone to pit against Apple’s iPhone juggernaut, our sibling site WMExperts keeps compiling evidence that Microsoft might be doing just that.

The latest is that Pink (as it’s code-named) has an ad agency, will be based on Windows Mobile 7 but have it’s own proprietary UI layer, should be available next year-ish, and provide Zune, My Phone, and Windows Marketplace for Mobiles functionality.

So have Microsoft’s previous denials been based on crossed fingers and the “truthiness” of actually making a Zune HD Phone? Or as TiPb has been predicting, an Xbox Phone?

Let’s face it, Microsoft would be negligent and borderline daft not to integrate the technologies and leverage the brand of Xbox.

Oh, wait…

So, either Steve Jobs really is retiring and Paris Hilton is now CEO of Apple, or some factory in China is taking the knock-off back plate biz to a whole new level. Our money’s decidedly on the latter. Engadget is likewise struggling to find reason for this iphonochromatic anomaly:

> The text on the back of the device convinces us that this isn’t a simple ColorWare job, but there aren’t any photos of the back of the packaging either. Our take? Some OEM in Asia whipping up custom colors.

All that said, anyone out there want some new iPhone colors in 2009? Which one(s)?