Microsoft, That's No Way To Treat A Partner

The news today from T-Mobile is that the servers are back and Sidekick users can start picking up the pieces of their mobile lives. The T-Mobile message isn't completely clear, but it seems Microsoft's Danger group has managed to totally destroy most of the data on the servers. The Sidekick product line may be dead.The disaster was made worse by the Sidekick's rather unique way of using contact information. Rather than keeping a complete copy of the user's contacts on the Sidekick and syncing that to the cloud, the device holds only a subset of the user's data. That's why T-Mobile urged users not to reset their Sidekicks, lest they lose what little data they have left. But that's about the only solid information that's come out of any of the companies since this fiasco began. Combine the customer service of a cell phone provider with the data processing of a company acquired and gutted by Microsoft -- what did you expect?

Microsoft has a lot to lose if they don't deal with this properly. Robbie Bach, President of Microsoft's Entertainment and Mobile Devices Division, was interviewed by Engadget earlier this month, just days before the Danger disaster. There were a few interesting comments in the interview. For example, Bach says a Microsoft phone isn't coming, presumably because they plan to address the market via Windows Mobile on partner hardware. If that is the plan, then showing commitment to partners is an important part of getting them on board.

Regarding the Sidekick Bach said, "The Sidekick isn't our brand, it's T-Mobile's brand." Perhaps that explains why Microsoft feels that it can be silent on the disaster for now. T-Mobile needs to take the lead on public statements about the problem, since ultimately it's T-Mobile's customer. Yet Microsoft's partners are no doubt watching closely to see how Microsoft reacts. Those partners have sometimes bought into Microsoft's technical vision, only to find that Microsoft changes direction and leaves them in the lurch. One good example of that is PlaysForSure, which Microsoft abandoned when it decided to produce its own Zune music player. For sure.

Perhaps the lesson Microsoft's partners should take away from this is that there is no such thing as a silent partnership with Microsoft. You're either all in with Microsoft, or you should run the other direction. Perhaps if the Sidekick had a big Microsoft logo on it somewhere, the company would take more responsibility for this disaster -- or it would have taken the steps needed to avoid disaster entirely.