Naturally, details are scarce—although the word is that the device will be a multimedia touchscreen that will push both Windows Mobile and the Windows Marketplace. It is also rumored that a third party may handle the manufacturing of the device. Could this be the Zune software "Pink" project we have heard so much about? [WSJ]

Update: Zune Marketing Exec Brian Seitz says he's heard nothing about a Microsoft Branded phone launching at any upcoming shows, which seems to rule out the possiblilty of it being a Zune Phone, if anything at all.

MSFT Smart-Phone Launch? Multiple industry sources are telling us that MSFT is planning to launch a smartphone. We are told it will be a 2H launch. We do not see this as landscape changing, much like their Zune launch.

According to the memo (excerpted above), written by Analyst firm Broadpoint AmTech, the phone would hit the market in the second half of 2009, and the project it would not overtake the established players, such as Apple and Blackberry, as much as it would flush out the small-time smartphone manufacturers.

They remain strictly speculatory throughout the memo, but call the idea of a Microsoft phone "puzzling," and suggest it would create tension between Microsoft and existing WinMo handset makers.

Now the question is: Will it be a Zune Phone, or merely a Microsoft-branded WinMo handset? [All Things D]