Sidekick Service Shutting Down in Three Months

T-Mobile announced this morning that it is shutting down the servers that its Sidekick line of smartphones need to run. This is part of this carrier's plan to switch the Sidekick line from the Danger OS to the Android OS.

A statement from the company says:

After May 31, 2011, the Danger Service (a subsidiary of Microsoft) used by T-Mobile Sidekick customers for data services will no longer be available on Sidekick devices.

T-Mobile will provide offers for our Sidekick customers before May 31, 2011, to help make an easy transition from their existing Sidekick device to a new device. We will have more information to share about these offers with our customers in the weeks ahead.

Fallen on Hard Times
When the first Sidekick was released several years ago, its focus on texting made it popular with teenagers. But as interest in phones with advanced features grew, 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.

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

T-Mobile stopped selling the final Sidekick based on the Danger OS in the summer of 2010.

Moving Forward
In January, the CEO of T-Mobile announced that the Sidekick 4G is in development, and gave a couple of details: this will be the first model in this series to run Google's Android OS, and the first to support this carrier's HSPA+ service.

Some additional features of this upcoming smartphone have come out through unofficial means, as well as an image. This shows that the product will not have the traditional Sidekick flip-around screen, but it will apparently have a flip-up display and a QWERTY keyboard.

It will supposedly run Android OS 2.2, and be produced by Samsung.

Transitioning to a New Device
T-Mobile understands that Sidekick users want to be able to move their address book and other data to a new device. It is releasing a pair of tools to make this process easier.

According to the company:

To ensure the best possible transition for our loyal Sidekick customers, an enhanced Web tool is available on myT-Mobile.com to easily export their personal data, including contacts, photos, calendar, notes, to-do lists, and bookmarks, from the Danger service to a new device, computer, or a designated e-mail account. An application is also available in the Sidekick Catalog to make it easy to export personal data to the Sidekick's memory card. Many T-Mobile stores can transfer data from that card to a new T-Mobile device if the customer brings in the memory card and Sidekick.