T-Mobile today announced that the Microsoft/Danger lost all personal data of Sidekick users that was stored on its servers. Ah, life in the storm cloud.
I was a longtime Sidekick user. I migrated from the original Sidekick to the Sidekick 2 to the Sidekick 3 to the first Sidekick LX. When my LX was on its last leg and the new LX came out, I tried the Android G1. All I can say is that there is a reason that the Sidekick will soon disappear.
A Brief History of the Sidekick
The Sidekick hardware is made by Sharp and the OS is by Danger, a company that Microsoft acquired last year. It was a sensible acquisition. I tried a an HTC phone with Microsoft’s Windows Mobile. The phone was incredible. [Note that the Andoid G1 (aka the Googlephone) is built by HTC under the supervision of the designer of the Sidekick.] As for the OS, I found that it was great for everything but phone, e-mail and chat, the 3 things I need most. Basically, Windows Mobile does everything but does almost none of it well. The Sidekick is an extremely limited platform that does almost nothing and general does it extremely well. I cannot find a phone-based chat app that matches the Sidekick’s chat on any OS.
Why this outage is so bad
Danger’s backing up users’ data on its servers was a brilliant idea. It gave the Sidekick access to the Cloud before anyone was talking about cloud computing. While others had to worry about losing their data with their phone, Sidekick users did not. The cost of this was a limitation on the quantity of data such as the number of contacts (2,000) and appointments (1,000… painfully small).
I was able to tolerate those limitations for the amazing thumbpad that allowed me to type with my thumbs faster than most people type with 10 fingers (or how ever many they use to type / hunt-and-peck). It became unbearable with the introduction of Windows Vista.
Oh, and T-Mobile hasn’t offered anything to users for the lost data or time without service. Short sale?
Not on our flagship OS
Danger relied on Intellisync for syncing the phone to a user’s computer. I used Outlook. The phone synced magically to the Danger servers with no action required from me. I used the Intellisync app to sync to Windows. No cables. No mess. Until Vista came out. While Microsoft bought Danger, Nokia bought Intellisync. Nokia didn’t seem to think it was necessary to help a competitor’s phone. There were a couple of weeks when it started to work but then it stopped again. That was enough to drive me into the arms of another phone. Farewell Sidekick.
Dark Cloud moving in
Android is a logical migration for Sidekick users. Let’s face it… the Sidekick is a toy for kids. I always recognized that and worked around it. The Sidekick gave me that amazing thumbpad and had the basic functions I needed, long before others caught up.
My e-mail, contacts, appointments, etc. are all on Gmail and stored by Google. The interface for them is Gmail which I now use for everything on every device. That’s much better than Danger’s limited, clunky interface. Also, the Sidekick limits users to 200 e-mails on the phone. I have access to every single e-mail in my Gmail account on my G1.
Apps on Android are close to the iPhone (some are better and not yet on Apple) and will be on par with the iPhone next year. Plus, every carrier will have Android phones next year when there are 20 on the market. There will still be a single iPhone, it will still have a single button and it won’t have a thumbpad. I’m all for simplicity but I also like functionality and the choice of how to use the device the way I want to.
Call the coroner
The Sidekick’s end is near. It will be thrown on the heap of old technology with Atari, Apple’s Newton (which was a little too early) and followed soon by Palm.
There is a serious battle to be waged between the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. Note that Windows Mobile is on that list only because it is Microsoft and Microsoft is going to throw a lot of money at it.
Sidekick, thanks for the memories. I’ll never forget you.
