On the T-Mobile Sidekick 4G surface, the looks a lot like the older Sidekick models that T-Mobile used to sell. It has the same basic design -- a large, slide-up screen as the centerpiece to a symmetrical layout intended primarily for messaging, but looks can be deceiving. Danger, the company which made the original Sidekick line was bought out by Microsoft several years ago, leading to the end of the "old" devices and a long hiatus in new releases. T-Mobile still owns the Sidekick brand, which it's now attempting to relaunch starting with a device manufacture by their partner company Samsung.
Even more importantly, the old proprietary "Danger OS" is now gone, replaced by an open and fully-functional smartphone platform, in the personage of Google's Android OS. With a suggested retail price of $100 with new service, and after a $50 rebate, T-Mobile is targeting the new and improved Sidekick at much the same market as the old device served, namely the entry-level messaging crowd. But with respectable hardware behind it, and a full smartphone platform, the Sidekick has the potential to appeal to more than just texting teenagers.
No comments:
Post a Comment