It’s Monday morning and you know what that means: a hot, fresh tidbit right off the rumour mills. The buzz across the Web is that Microsoft is set to launch two competitors to Apple’s iPhone – called ‘Turtle’ and ‘Pure’ – early next year, finally throwing its hat into the hardware arena.
All information regarding it is hush-hush, and is said to be classified under the ‘Project Pink’ moniker. Leading Apple-related news site 9to5Mac said that the new phones would be made by Microsoft in cooperation with hardware manufacturer Sharp and would bear a resemblance to the Sidekick LX – originally developed by Danger Inc., which MS acquired last year. In fact, they'll be co-branded as ‘Microsoft+Sharp’ products.
“One device is ‘squircle’ in shape like the past Zune's buttons. The slide-out keyboard houses the microphone at the bottom and it is meant to be open when being used as a phone. This device is code-named ‘Turtle’ and looks like a dressed up Motorola QA1,” wrote 9to5Mac. “The other device is more traditionally-shaped candybar slider and is code-named ‘Pure’.”
The site also claims to have received a few photographs of the prototype, although they haven’t put those up. By their estimation – backed by reputed writers from CNET and other sites – the new devices should be unveiled at CES in January 2010.
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