Microsoft plans to introduce its long-awaited "Project Pink" phones, a new line of handsets with social-networking capabilities aimed at young consumers, early next week and to be released for Verizon this summer.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company sent invitations to media to attend an event in San Francisco on April 12 bearing the slogan, "It's time to share," but declined to comment further.

People familiar with the matter said it would be to introduce new phones, based on a Microsoft project codenamed "Pink," that will be released for Verizon later this month.

The new devices don't seem to be the main part of the software giant's push to turn around its struggling handset strategy, which is centered on the redesign of its Windows Mobile software. But the move is the latest sign that it is getting more deeply involved in the hardware side of the business.

Microsoft designed the hardware, software and online services for the Pink phones, while Japanese electronics giant Sharp is manufacturing the products.

The partnership is similar to the one the company had with Danger, a start-up it bought in 2008, that designed the Sidekick and later worked on the Pink project.

Still, Microsoft stopped short of being directly involved, as rivals Apple and Google did with the iPhone and Nexus One, both selling their products on their own Web sites.

Instead, the company has decided to work more closely with carriers to bring the Pink phones to consumers.

In February, the embattled company released its Windows Mobile 7 software, which is the central part of its turnaround efforts to win back market share.

Microsoft has been losing market share in the U.S. smartphone market. From November to February, the beleaguered company dropped 4 percent to hold a 15.1 percent share of the market. Ahead of it, Apple has 25.4 percent, Research in Motion has 42.1 percent and Google has 9 percent, according to research firm comScore.