The End Is Nigh For T-Mobile's Sidekick

Launched in 2002, the Sidekick has been a staple of T-Mobile's offerings and very popular, especially among the younger crowd. Its days are numbered though. If you still rock the Sidekick, start shopping.The Sidekick has been a T-Mobile exclusive since launch, originally built by Danger. They were storing your data in the cloud before the term cloud had widespread recognition among the public. The device stored everything on the cloud, not just contacts and emails like many devices today. It led to some interesting stories like when Paris Hilton's account was hacked and her address book was there for the world to see.

In late 2009, Microsoft almost ended the life of the Sidekick prematurely by making some changes to the hardware that ran the cloud and that turned thousands of Sidekicks into paperweights. Recall that Microsoft purchased Danger in 2008 for $500M.

Now T-Mobile has decided the product line has officially run its course. Without the server infrastructure, the Sidekick will basically become useless. The replacement, KIN, was essentially stillborn. Redmond Magazine says that the carrier is working on an Android based replacement but there is no specified time. The official cutoff date is May 31, just 90 days from today.

Don't worry if you aren't eligible for an upgrade though based on when you entered your current contract. The article states that T-Mobile will be working with affected users to find new hardware for them that will suit their needs.