T-Mobile Ending Sales of Current Sidekicks, but Promises More in the Future

T-Mobile is going to stop selling the one remaining model in its once-popular Sidekick line. But the carrier has plans to revamp the Sidekick series in the future so that if offers "a new and fresh experience."

The last model running the operating system created by Danger, Inc., the Sidekick LX 2009, is still on T-Mobile's shelves, but that's going to change soon.

Despite the impending end of sales of new units, the carrier will continue to offer service and support for devices that are already in customers' hands.

Looking Ahead
A statement from T-Mobile says that it is working "on the next chapter of our storied Sidekick franchise. Stay tuned for exciting updates in the months ahead, which we expect will provide customers with a new and fresh experience."

According to information that leaked out of this carrier earlier this year, the future of the Sidekick line is in the Android OS. T-Mobile is reportedly going to release models that resemble the earlier devices from Danger: phones with a consumer focus and hardware keyboards, but running Google's operating system.

The carrier already offers a model that fits this criteria, though it doesn't bear the Sidekick name: the T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide.

A Look Back at the Sidekick Line
When the first Sidekick was released several years ago, its focus on texting made it popular with teenagers, and T-Mobile fostered this by making sure celebrities -- most notably Paris Hilton -- were often photographed using it.

But as time went on, interest in phones with advanced features grew, and the Sidekick line was left behind, as the operating system that is at the heart of these devices was designed primarily to be easy to use, but not particularly powerful.

This platform certainly wasn't helped by a major server disruption last  fall that nearly lost all Sidekick users' data.

And there was an important development behind the scenes: Danger Inc., the company behind the Sidekick devices, was purchased by Microsoft. Since then, much of this company's focus has switched to projects for its new owner.