American network provider Verizon has been featured heavily in the news this past week, initially for their possible discussions with Apple to take on an exclusive iPhone and now for their chats with Microsoft who could be planning a step into the smartphone market with their own hardware running Windows Mobile, rather than simply selling the software license.
This is something Microsoft have always denied as even a possibility, but the Wall Street Journal says something very different. They have inside information that Verizon and Microsoft are discussing teaming-up to launch a new mobile phone, exclusive to the network, which will run Windows Mobile and feature hardware created by ‘a third party’, but collaboratively designed with Microsoft. This approach can be likened to Google’s involvement with the T-Mobile G1.
Speculation is focused on a Microsoft project code-named ‘Pink’, which previously was suspected to be a software only venture, but now could be the platform with which they will properly challenge Apple’s iPhone and the aforementioned G1. If the project comes to fruition, we should expect the Pink to house the Zune music player software, Windows online application store and since Verizon have recently made the deal themselves, a host of Microsoft Search services.
If the Pink project is indeed Microsoft’s response to its smartphone competitors, it’s something which needs to come sooner rather than later, or they may miss the boat once again. But if the Pink runs Windows Mobile 7 – as they themselves have said 6.5 is a interim system and not a massive leap forward – then it’s a least a year away, giving others a chance to be, once again, one step ahead of the software giant.
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