Rumoured Microsoft Project Pink phone “Turtle” confirmed at FCC
Sharp has revealed pictures of the rumoured Microsoft “Project Pink” device ‘Turtle’ in an FCC filing this week. — Sharp manufactured the original Sidekick for Danger, a company Microsoft acquired in February 2008.
Context & Ripple Effects
Project Pink has spent six months on life support in the press: MobileCrunch reported last October that the program might be dead in the water, and follow-up coverage blamed internal dogfooding and sabotage for the Sidekick/Pink turmoil at Danger, the company Microsoft bought in February 2008.
The FCC filing changes the terms of that argument — an FCC submission cannot be rumour-mongering, so Sharp's 'Turtle' hardware now exists on paper regardless of what sceptics wrote in the autumn. It also fits the September 2009 prediction that Microsoft would show two iPhone competitors in 2010, with Sharp's history building the original Sidekick for Danger explaining exactly why this manufacturer is holding the paperwork.
First-order effects
- Microsoft's Project Pink moves from contested rumour to confirmed hardware: the Turtle's existence is now a matter of public regulatory record, forcing the company to either announce or quietly kill a device it can no longer deny.
- Sharp's role as manufacturer is documented, tying its production lines and design work to a Microsoft-branded handset derived from Danger's Sidekick lineage.
Second-order effects
- If Pink ships as an iPhone competitor rather than a Windows Phone device, Microsoft faces the awkward optics of funding hardware that competes with its own mobile OS licensees — a tension carriers and OEM partners will press it to clarify before launch.
- Apple and Android handset makers gain a new entrant backed by Microsoft's distribution muscle, sharpening the 2010 smartphone field the September predictions anticipated.
Third-order effects
- A confirmed Pink device would mark Microsoft's structural turn from pure software licensor toward vertically integrated phone maker built on acquisitions like Danger — a direction that, if the Turtle reaches market, puts it in direct conflict with the partner model that carried Windows Mobile.
The trend: Smartphone competition in 2010 is pulling big software companies into building their own handsets through acquisition, with regulatory filings like this FCC disclosure serving as the first hard evidence of those programs.