The next-gen Hiptop will sport a slick UI inspired by Windows Phone 7 and take aim at the twittering tweens, teens and twentysomething social networking set.
Windows Phone 7 is still a good six months away, but Microsoft has another smartphone sitting on the launchpad and prepped for liftoff next week.
Reports in
The Wall Street Journal say that Microsoft will unveil its all-new family of Hiptop devices at a press event in San Francisco next Tuesday.
These have been under development in Microsoft’s skunkworks under the codename of Project Pink, and leaked photos of two devices – codenamed Turtle and Pure – show compact sliders with a QWERTY keyboard.
The puck-shaped Turtle, manufactured by Sharp as one of the next-gen Hiptops from Project Pink
(pic courtesy of Gizmodo)
Microsoft acquired Danger Inc, creators of the popular Hiptop (aka Sidekick) messaging phone, several years ago, and pundits immediately wondered if Redmond would retain the device’s nimble Java-based OS or ditch it in favour of Windows Mobile?
So it’s interesting to note that the UI shown on the screens of the Turtle and Pure bears more than a passing resemblance to the ‘Live Tiles’ look of Windows Phone 7.
While it’s unlikely that Microsoft has shoehorned its new Windows Phone OS into the Hiptop, there’s always the possibility that this is an incredibly pared-down version of the OS – stripped back to suit the Hiptop’s modest hardware and the more straight-forward needs of its target audience.
Or it could even be the old Java OS given a Windows Phone 7-inspired skin, to ensure that buyers will more likely gravitate towards actual Windows Phone 7 devices when they outgrow the new Hiptops.