Maybe that’s because the most charming part of the film was the clips from a pair of YouTube appearances by four-year-old Kellen Sarmiento, who is channeling cast member Darren Criss, the lead singer of the Warblers on the hit television show.

You’ll get it when you see the tiny star in a school blazer, doing his version of Pink’s “Raise Your Glass” and Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”:

Four days after Apple (AAPL) unveils the details of its forthcoming iPhone OS 4, Microsoft (MSFT) will take the wraps off its long-rumored “Pink” feature phones at a San Francisco media gathering with the cryptic title, “It’s Time to Share.”

News.com’s Ina Fried reports that Microsoft will uncrate two Pink phones, code-named Pure and Turtle, at the event, both destined for Verizon’s (VZ) network. The Sharp-manufactured devices, which feature touchscreens and keyboards, are expected to go on sale this spring.

Looks like Microsoft’s long-rumored “Pink” phone project is about to make the jump from speculation to reality. Gizmodo has managed to get its hands on some marketing materials that appear to confirm Pink’s existence and finger Verizon (VZ) as a launch partner.

Evidently, there are to be two Pink phones–one with a horizontal slider, the other with a vertical one (click on image below to enlarge)–both manufactured by Sharp. Neither, it seems, will run Windows Phone 7, though Gizmodo suggests that whatever the phones do run might share some aesthetic elements with the operating system.

“It’s suggested that the (Pink) platform has apps of some sort,” writes Gizmodo’s John Herrman. “For a phone like this to share apps with Windows Phone 7 is pretty much impossible–the minimum hardware requirement for a Windows Phone look out of reach for this little black lump–so this one’s a big question mark. Is it another SDK? Or closed app development like we’ve seen on the Zune HD? Web apps?”

Interesting questions. Perhaps, Pink is Microsoft’s (MSFT) way of getting into the feature phone business without alienating its Windows Phone 7 hardware partners. According to Gizmodo, we may find out as soon as April when the devices are expected to arrive at market.

[Pink Phone Image credit: Gizmodo]

“With Windows Mobile, we want to permit a range of hardware innovation, and yet, still have a pretty good experience end-to-end, with good applications, and we want the ability for software developers to target both a very high-end and a lower range or mid-range phone. And the ability to scale up and down, to work with multiple hardware vendors, to get a range of competition and innovation and price competition amongst the hardware guys is a big asset. It is certainly what our strategy is.”

That being the case, it’s intriguing to learn that talk of Microsoft’s (MSFT) long-rumored “Pink” phone project has started up again. In a note to clients today, Jefferies & Company analyst Katherine Egbert claims that Redmond is gearing up to launch a phone based on Windows Mobile 7.

“Our recent industry checks indicate Microsoft will be debuting its own phone sometime in the next two months,” Egbert writes. “We expect the new phone to debut soon, at either the Feb 15-18 Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona Spain, or possibly at CTIA in Las Vegas one month later.”

The device, “a Zune-like phone” according to Egbert–is likely the result of an OEM partnership similar to the one between Google (GOOG) and HTC that produced the Nexus One. She believes it will boast a five-megapixel camera and support 720p HD video and some music subscription/purchasing scheme.

Beyond that, Egbert is at a loss. “We don’t have any information about the cost of the Pink phone, nor do we know what service providers might be partnered with Microsoft,” she explains.

“Revenue from the phone is also very unlikely to be meaningful for many years,” the analyst adds. “However, the new phone might explain why Microsoft has allowed WinMo to dwindle to <10% mobile OS market share. Pink would be the 'third screen' (after Windows and Xbox) and final component in Microsoft's '3 screens and a cloud' strategy."

Microsoft and Verizon are reportedly discussing a touchscreen multimedia cellphone that could launch on the carrier’s network in 2010. The project, code-named “Pink,” will apparently involve some ungodly combination of Windows Mobile and Zune software. That code name is particularly interesting in light of recent reports that Microsoft (MSFT) has requested proposals for a new ad campaign for a mysterious mobile application by the same name.

Beyond that, details are slim. Representatives for Verizon (VZ)–which already has six Windows Mobile touchscreen devices in its lineup–refused to comment on the report. And Microsoft is apparently holding to the party line, insisting that its mobile strategy is to provide a software solution, not devices. Consider these remarks from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at a recent McGraw-Hill (MHP) media conference:

With Windows Mobile, we want to permit a range of hardware innovation, and yet, still have a pretty good experience end-to-end, with good applications, and we want the ability for software developers to target both a very high-end and a lower range or mid-range phone.

And the ability to scale up and down, to work with multiple hardware vendors, to get a range of competition and innovation and price competition amongst the hardware guys is a big asset. It is certainly what our strategy is. It’s very different than Apple’s, and it’s very different than BlackBerry’s. But, unless you assume Apple and BlackBerry are going to sell the lion’s share of most phones … which I don’t, because I think they’re going to get a lot of competition from the Samsungs, LGs, Sony Ericssons, Taiwanese. I mean, there are a lot of guys who are going to be in that phone business.

I think that the play for us is to permit broad innovation at many price points, with a very good and very feature-rich, in terms of applications, experience. If people want keyboard input, that’s great. If they want touch, that’s great. If they, you know, want voice, we need to give them a range of modalities for interaction. And that’s the direction we’re headed with Windows Mobile 6.5 and into the future.

Ah yes, Windows Mobile 6.5. When are we going to see that again?