“Project Pink and the rumored remake of a Microsoft Tablet are back on the rumor treadmill this weekend,” Mary Jo Foley blogs for ZDNet. “It’s been quiet out there lately on both fronts. Here’s a recap — plus a couple of small updates — that I’ve heard recently about these two skunk-works efforts.”
“Pink: Yes, it’s a Microsoft-branded (but not Microsoft-manufactured) phone. Yes, it also will feature premium mobile services (like the Zune video store and music subscription/purchasing). I wouldn’t be surprised if Pink looked like — or at least was targeted at the same demographic as — the Sidekick, given the Danger folks have been at the core of Pink’s development team since Microsoft acquired Danger in 2008,” Foley reports. “Last I heard, Pink was being built on top of the Windows Mobile 7 core, which is in development, but now not expected to be available on phones until late 2010.”
Foley reports, “I received a tip earlier this year that Microsoft was going to make another run at the Tablet. Chief Experience Officer J Allard, who has been been noticeably absent from public appearances over the past few months, is supposedly leading the charge.”
MacDailyNews Take: Because he’s just soo busy that he can’t appear in public for even one second, much less an hour or two. Puleeze. More likely, Microsoft’s Steve Jobs-wannabe is too enthralled with his Apple Mac and his 9 iPods to leave his office.
Foley continues, “More recently, I heard that at least one exec from Microsoft’s Surface team is part of the Tablet effort, too.”
MacDailyNews Take: Because what the world is crying out for is a 53-pound Big Ass Tablet bathed in App-Lack™. Buy one, get one free cart.
Foley continues, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft is waiting for Apple to show its Tablet hand before trotting out its revamped Tablet.”
MacDailyNews Take: Because then Microsoft can yet again look like the followers that they are. Thanks, Mary Jo, for yet another brilliant soccer mom deduction. Are we sure Mary Jo’s not really the one behind Microsoft’s latest WIndows 7 ad?
Foley continues, “Microsoft is a software and services company. Execs have made it clear they plan to get out of the MP3 player business after “at least one more” Zune HD device. Microsoft is more interested in making money off subscriptions. That’s why Zune is morphing into a set services are going to move to mobile phones, including Pink.”
MacDailyNews Take: Because Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Danger’s Sidekick each set the world so ablaze on their own that together they’ll simply eviscerate Apple’s iPhone+iPod+iTunes+iiTunes Store+App Store solution. And the carriers thought Dell’s phone was too dull. They haven’t seen anything, yet. And, don’t forget to get your soon-to-be-orphaned Zune HD – also slathered in App-Lack™ – today!
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Robert S.” for the heads up.]
Zune HD can’t go international because the HD radio, or whatever they use isn’t the same standard used internationally.
ooooo- Microsoft is going to “invent” a tablet…. and, and- the BigAssTable team is gonna help-
Couldn’t be better news for Apple- but- Apple is smarter than that- they could care less.
@ Anonymous© – I’m sure they’ll rename it to something else in a couple years when it’s failing… perhaps “Microsoft Windows Live Bing Phone HD Touch Hardware Specifications, Starter Edition”?
“Chief Experience Officer J Allard”
Wow, what a complete ‘made up’ job title!
He couldn’t be more uncool if he set himself on fire.
Zune?
But, how am I supposed to put the BAT in my bag?
Oh my God Frank that was priceless in a way only MasterCard could buy.
Frank, toooooo funny!
App Lack, App Lack
Microsoft™ Windows™ Live™ Bing™ Phone™ HD™ Touch™ Hardware™ Specifications™, Starter Edition™ © ®
ROFLMAO
@Anonymous,
Bullshit! You mean to tell me Microsoft is turning down millions of sales and a chance to broaden the reach of the Zune around the world all because of the HD radio? LOL. Why not just make a separate global edition without it?
Microsoft won’t do it because they have no confidence in the Zune. There’s no demand for it outside of a couple million Apple haters in America. They know it’s dead on arrival.
If I buy the Microsoft tablet, does it come with the projectors or do I have to supply my own?
Pink? Microsoft is stealing the names of Apple’s FAILED ventures too. What’s next, the “Taligent” project?
If these hardware items made by Microsoft are as reliable and stable as the XBOX360, then count me in.
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Ah, yes. J Allard. The man you brought you the shit brown Zune. A man so cool that he simply dropped his first name. Puleeze.
This drivel from Microsoft sock puppet (and Steve Jobs hater – she once told me so herself) Mary Jo Foley is a classic Microsoft PR trick of attempting to “freeze the market.” It used to work. They once put out an announcement about Pen Windows, and as a result, put a couple of companies out of business. But with a company like Apple, that’s not likely to work, especially with the iPod, iPhone and likely soon, and iTablet.
This makes me think of the classic scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones, when confronted by a man twirling a menacing sword, simply pulls out his gun and blows the guy away. But in a sequel, he tries to do the same thing again, only to find his gun not there. I think there is a parallel here for Microsoft. Simply put, Steve Ballmer has stopped learning and listening. The old tricks of the 80s won’t work in the new millennium.
But don’t take my word for it. Instead, read the mainstream PC and IT media to see how they react. Some, like CNet or Mary Jo Foley, will march in lockstep to anything commanded from Redmond. But I think this announcement will be greeted with a collective yawn.
J Allard, you’re no Steve Jobs.
It is well-documented how companies like Apple, run by technical guys who design and manufacture products with great attention to detail, achieve long-term success. Their business sustainability is impressive because their products retain value. In contrast, marketeering-driven companies like Microsoft (or Chrysler, or IBM, and so on), despite impressive short-term revenue, fall apart when they stop listening to their technology experts and start scheming for ways to extract more cash from their customers after the initial sale.
So now the pundits speculate that Microsoft is getting out of the hardware business (has MS lost the technical ability or just assuming that greater profitability will materialize when it outsources the job to some bargain-basement 3rd party to design and built it?)
Microsoft now thinks that the subscription-based model is the key to their next wave of cash flow. I contend otherwise: the iTunes store success proves that people prefer to own, not rent, their music and software. The CD would stiill sell well if it was priced reasonably, but one good track and 10 overproduced filler songs on a $20 disc that cost $0.30 to manufacture smites people as robbery). And the failure of subscription-based services like newspapers, magazines, song services, and the like isn’t because they don’t like paper — they just don’t like to pay premium dollar month after month to get content that is weak and littered with ads or DRM chains. Google offers ad-laden content for free, and Apple offers ad-free products and services for what many of us consider a reasonable price. Whatever end of the spectrum Microsoft wants to walk, it’d better figure it out soon, because it’s cash horde is not going to last forever.
“that I’ve heard recently about these two skunk-works efforts.”
Skunk would be the appropriate word for it.
“Chief Experience Officer J Allard”
Chief Experience Officer?!?! Are they freakin’ serious? If they have such a position, I would have guessed that Helen Keller was in it.
Experience this “J”
Hotinplaya can’t you ONCE write something with just a tad of intelligence