Is a Consumer targeted Microsoft Phone on the way?

There have been rumours for years about Microsoft bringing out their own mobile phone (as opposed to the current strategy of Windows Mobile on OEM hardware) which has been denied by Microsoft but according to Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley an ad agency has been picked to handle “Pink Project”.

Microsoft has been keeping close to the vest details about Pink. I’ve heard from my tipsters that there will be one Pink phone manufacturer. Some are saying it’s Motorola or possibly Sharp, both of which have manufactured Danger-based phones. Pink’s “user experience”/user interface, which is codenamed “Purple,” is meant to appeal to an audience not so different from the traditional Sidekick audience.

I think it makes sense for Microsoft to offer some kind of lifestyle phone with the Zune software built in that is aimed at consumers and leave the OEMs to target businesses, it must be killing Microsoft to see the rise of Android, Palm and the continued success of the iPhone and the incredibly slow pace of WinMo development. I am sure I am not the only one abandoning WinMo in favour of a more up to date OS and I would love to be surprised by a cool new Windows Mobile 7 based device, lets hope they get it out before things get terminal for WinMo