New ‘pink’ Microsoft phone to come

According to reports and a scheduled press conference, the two new phones will come out on 12 April as a part of Microsoft’s ‘Pink’ project.

They will be ‘feature phones’ rather than full smartphones, and will be the first time that Microsoft has a had a close involvement with the design and user experience.

Feature phones are built for users that want lots of content but don’t want the bells and whistles associated with more high-powered devices, rather looking for devices that do the simple job of being a mobile phone well.

Named ‘Turtle’ and ‘Pure, the devices will be similar to the T-Mobile Sidekick, and run on the Verizon wireless network in the US, but should be later available internationally.

Generally, Microsoft has limited itself to the production of the operating system, which has allowed rivals like Apple to steal a march with phones entirely built by one company.

The phones will have sliding keyboards and touch screens, but won’t have the power of smartphones built on the company’s separate Windows 7 Series devices, which is the where Microsoft is really putting its bets on when it comes to the smartphone market.