In an effort to compete with itself, Microsoft is preparing a new smartphone based on the Danger Sidekick. Microsoft recently relaunched the future of Windows Mobile under the name “Windows 7 Phone Series” which it hopes to ship as a product by the end of the year. Microsoft has taken the route of deemphasizing mobile apps to instead focus on an experience that melts together the most popular web-centric features like Facebook and Twitter, while also directing attention toward Microsoft’s own Bing search and Zune media player properties.

Rather than melding Windows Mobile with the Zune to create a cohesive mobile platform like Apple, Microsoft moved in the opposite direction. The Danger group Microsoft acquired was run autonomously. Microsoft converted Danger into “Pink,” a top secret project operating independently from Windows Mobile, with the intent of directly challenging the iPhone.

The 2 smart phones models in the works will be manufactured by Sharp. According to gizmodo.com, the User Interface apparently shares some aesthetic elements with Windows Phone 7, albeit with “some sort of UI skin/more of a social-networking edge to [it].” As for release, apparently Verizon is “looking at a late April launch date,” though this isn’t set in stone.