T-Mobile Sidekick Sales Discontinued as Microsoft Shifts Attentions
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T-Mobile announced it will no longer sell the Sidekick LX or Sidekick 2008, though it will continue to support customers who use these phones. The Sidekick is made by a subsidiary of Microsoft-which is focusing its energies on Windows Phone 7.
T-Mobile will no longer sell the Sidekick LX or Sidekick 2008 - not at T-Mobile stores, or retail stores or online.
Currently a Sidekick owner? No worries, the carrier said in a statement
July 2. "While we work on the next chapter of our storied Sidekick
franchise, T-Mobile will continue to provide our loyal Sidekick
customers with product service and support."
The T-Mobile-branded handsets - originally made by Danger, which was
acquired by Microsoft in 2008 - began selling six years ago and
featured a somehow-consistently-fun display that, when nudged, swung
down and up and over, to reveal and sit atop a full QWERTY kepad.
The Sidekick was at first synonymous with Paris Hilton - an early user - and later being hacked into, again in regard to Hilton.
In October 2009, the brand suffered another blow after a server issue caused users' personal data to be wiped from nearly 800,000 Sidekicks.
While many expected T-Mobile to suspend sales of the devices at that
point, on Nov. 17, 2009, it instead announced new pricing for the
Sidekick LX 2009 and Sidekick 2008. Customers were also offered the
conciliatory gesture of a $100 T-Mobile gift card and a month of free
data service.
More recently, Microsoft's Danger team has reportedly had its
attentions focused on Microsoft's Kin lineup of handsets - which like
the Sidekick were geared toward teens and heavy social networkers. On
June 30, however, Microsoft announced that it plans to integrate its Kin team with its Windows Phone 7 team, and put all of its energies into the latter.
In Windows Phone 7, Microsoft hopes to have a brand compelling enough
to compete with the Apple iPhone 4 and the only-growing number of
handsets running Google's Android OS.
The T-Mobile site, following its no-more-Sidekicks message, pointed interested consumers instead to its myTouch 3G, or the Motorola Cliq XT. Both of which run the Android OS.
