Gizmodo have been busy today with news of Project Pink, first they reported that the below image is real and shows that Project Pink is coming soon with Verizon being the carrier in the US.

Gizmodo believe that the devices will go on sale in late April but have no info on pricing. In terms of specification nothing new has been given away but we do know that the OS running on the device wont be 7 Series. It does, however, look like there will be apps on the device but whether this is going to mean another SDK, closed development apps (like the Zune HD) or web apps is still unknown.

I wonder if the devices of Project Pink will run Windows Mobile with a hugely overhauled UI, surely Microsoft haven’t been working on another completely new mobile OS; that would mean they would have 4, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone OS, Zune HD OS and Project Pink OS. It will certainly be interesting to see what Microsoft have planned for these devices, why they think another type of phone is needed and what Microsoft’s partners have to say on the matter.

The second piece Gizmodo had about Project Pink showed off some leaked shots of the rumoured Pure device.

Again no real specifics were given with these images but you can see the interface looks very Zune-y/7-Series-y (that music panel certainly looks like Zune) however its obviously neither of them. The source of the leak apparently got a few seconds to use the Pure, and said it was intuitive, "better than Android," and decorated with Windows Phone 7-style animations throughout.

The only way I can see these devices doing well in the market is if they are high-end feature phones aimed at being teenager’s (or increasingly younger) first phone before they get a smart phone. These devices would likely be much cheaper than any 7 Series handset and if Microsoft can get the interface, features and marketing right these could be quite successful in the lower-end of the market. If Microsoft can tie in some of their other services like Zune and Bing I’m sure it would encourage younger users to get these devices before going the full hog a few years later for a 7 Series device.

There has sadly been no name for this range of devices but I would guess it will be a four letter made up name seeing as the consumer focussed brands from Microsoft follow this pattern; Bing, Xbox and Zune.

I am looking forward to hearing more about the Project although its highly likely I will never own one.

Update: PocketNow have just received a load of new images of the UI. Below is thought to be a contacts screen that allows dialling a user’s contact just push pressing the contact’s photo.

There are two images thought to be the default lock screens of the two Project Pink devices, Pure being the first and Turtle being the second.

The next set of images are “covers” for applications, whether these are splash screens shown when apps are being opened or background for the apps is unknown. The screens are for Contacts, Phone and Photos, PocketNow are aware that there will be other apps including Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live, Yahoo Messenger, MySpace and also images for an RSS reader, SMS, Search, Settings, Alarm, Browser, plus several others.

PocketNow also believe that the phones will support Microsoft Exchange for email synching.

These images all look “arty” and suggest a serious attempt to make this a “cool” and “trendy” interface for phones, now if only the look of the devices can match what these images imply. To me it looks increasingly like this will be aimed at teens.