New Rumor Breathes Life into Reports of a Microsoft-Branded Smartphone

Every few months, rumors crop up that Microsoft is in the process of developing its own smartphone. The company always strongly denies these, but they persist.

The latest of unconfirmed report on this subject comes from ZDnet, who says that this device will be based on Windows Mobile 7, but will have some unspecified features not available to other models running this operating system.

It is supposedly being developed by people from Danger, Inc., a company that Microsoft acquired last year. This is the team responsible for the T-Mobile Sidekick, a very consumer-oriented line of smartphones.

What Previous Rumors Say
There have been rumors for some time about that Microsoft is creating a "ZunePhone", a combination phone and Zune music player that would be released under Microsoft's own brand.

This spring,  the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft is in talks with Verizon to release this model.

Somewhat contradictory reports say that this project -- code-named Pink -- isn't working on a single phone, but will instead bring Zune-like functions to other devices running Microsoft software, including Windows Mobile.

Obviously, if this company releases a smartphones under its own brand, it would be significant departure from its current strategy, in which it licenses the Windows Mobile operating system for other phone makers to use.

Source: ZDnet