Gizmodo, the site that broke the “leaks” about Microsoft’s “Pink” project phones a couple weeks ago, has now become rumor central about the possible (probable? predestined?) demise of Microsoft’s supposed attempt to be more involved in phone hardware. A project that seemed a bit dubious and ill-conceived for Microsoft when first rumored seems even more so after recent events with the Sidekick.

You see, Pink was allegedly based on and built around the contributions of former staffers of Sidekick developer Danger, who brought their smartphone and UI know-how to Redmond when Microsoft bought the company a couple years ago. However, now the recent destruction of Sidekick’s Cloud based data, and thusly of Sidekick it seems, is being blamed (rightly I have a feeling) on Microsoft’s neglect. What does this bode for Pink (assuming it even exists of course)?

Gixmodo’s Jason Chen was even more brutal than normal towards Microsoft over their apparent bungling of Pink and waste of the Sidekick and Danger, and wrote as follows concerning hopes for the project…

According to Channelweb, the Premium Mobile Experiences (PMX) team has caused, either by layoffs or by pissing them off, a large chunk of the Danger team to leave Microsoft. Danger is the team that actually built the Sidekick, and Roz Ho was siphoning off their resources into the Pink camp in order to make sure the latter could survive. By doing so, it seems like she’s killed off both groups, which might be why Microsoft keeps denying that they’re going to make phone hardware.

Channelweb’s tipster sounds similar to the tipster last week that talked to MobileCrunch about management ineptitude and lousy business choices. To summarize, Roz Ho, Microsoft’s "head of mobile experiences", seems to be making so many bad choices that naming the project after Pink, the angry singer, seems like one of her best choices.

If Pink does die an early death, I won’t weep bitter tears. I thought the prototypes looked simplistic and out-dated and didn’t see the wisdom of MIcrosoft suddenly horning into handset design. Far better to work more closely with a partner who is committed to Windows Mobile such as LG or Samsung (or even HTC if they still have some love for Redmond) on WinPho 7 to be sure they get the hardware integration on the flagship models just right, then provide that version to other vendors for them to build their own devices to match. Microsoft working that closely on the actual physical prototypes of a phone just strikes me as…dare I say it…”Danger-ous”.

Of course, no confirmations from Microsoft about any of this. Hell, they never confirmed Pink exists at all.

Zealot (473 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).