Looks like Danger is going public. They’ve filed with the SEC with the hopes of raising $100 million. We’re still looking through the filing as it’s chock full of interesting information on the company behind these Sidekick devices that have been in our pockets for the last 5 years. More info to come.

How successful is Danger? Try almost a million users and a nice chunk of change generated by those users:

From the introduction of our solution in October 2002 through September 30, 2007, the number of subscribers to our mobile data services has grown to approximately 923,000. Our total revenues have grown from $49.3 million in the year ended September 30, 2006 to $56.4 million in the year ended September 30, 2007, and our service revenues have grown from $38.9 million in the year ended September 30, 2006 to $50.6 million in the year ended September 30, 2007.

Danger expresses their reliance on T-Mobile:

We are substantially dependent on T-Mobile USA, Inc., or T-Mobile USA, for our revenues and if we fail to maintain our relationship with T-Mobile USA or if T-Mobile USA reduces its expenditures for marketing our mobile data services, alters the data plan pricing under which it offers our mobile data services, or offers or promotes competing mobile data services in lieu of, or to a greater degree than, our mobile data services, our revenues would be materially and substantially reduced.

And a whopping 94.5% of their revenue is from T-Mobile (worldwide). They also mention that their contract with T-Mobile will end on December 2008, where T-Mobile will have to renew it should they choose to. (We hope they do)

They also express the fear that Google’s Android brings:

We operate in a highly competitive industry and we may not be able to compete effectively. In addition, recent developments in the mobile device and mobile services markets, such as the formation of the Google-led Open Handset Alliance, as well as the introduction of new wireless technologies and new entrants seeking to gain market share, could harm our competitive position.

And Danger even owns up to the fact that their competitors have a “quicker pace of innovation” than them, one of the main reasons that many of the early adopters have left the Sidekick.

There is a lot of mention of the problems that the Sidekick Slide faced with the recall and delay. There is even mention of the Paris Hilton “hack”.

Even the perception of a security risk could inhibit market acceptance of Danger-enabled mobile devices and our mobile data services. For example, in February 2005, the personal information contained on Paris Hilton’s Sidekick device was disclosed on the Internet. Although investigations into the incident concluded that our mobile data services solution was not at fault, the incident may have raised concerns regarding the security of our mobile data services solution

Some random snippets we found interesting:

The number of our customers’ subscribers using Danger-enabled mobile devices has increased substantially from approximately 136,000 as of September 30, 2004 to approximately 923,000 as of September 30, 2007. Our total revenues have grown from $49.3 million in the year ended September 30, 2006 to $56.4 million in the year ended September 30, 2007, and our service revenues have grown from $38.9 million in the year ended September 30, 2006 to $50.6 million in the year ended September 30, 2007. Since our inception, we have not been profitable. Our loss from operations was $10.3 million, $8.0 million and $11.8 million in the years ended September 30, 2005, 2006 and 2007, respectively and we expect to continue to incur operating losses for the foreseeable future. As of September 30, 2007 our accumulated deficit was $188.1 million. The last day of our fiscal year is September 30.

The strength of our solution is demonstrated by the frequent use of interactive mobile applications and heavy consumption of downloadable mobile content by consumers using Danger-enabled mobile devices. During the quarter ended September 30, 2007, consumers using Danger-enabled mobile devices, on a monthly basis:

• sent and received an average of 3,223 instant messages;
• viewed an average of 481 web pages; and
• sent and received an average of 930 text messages.

Additionally, more than 60% of consumers using Danger-enabled mobile devices purchased downloadable content during the quarter ended September 30, 2007, with each purchaser buying an average of four downloadable content items during the quarter ended September 30, 2007.

Large and growing third-party developer program. In addition to the internal development of our core data applications, we have cultivated a large and growing third-party developer program for the creation of premium applications, content and services to be distributed on our platform. Our third-party developer program is designed to foster a steady and competitive pipeline of premium applications, content and services that we believe enhance the overall consumer experience. Our third-party developers leverage our integrated technology platform and our operator and OEM relationships to commercialize and distribute premium applications, content and services to a broad audience through a single point of distribution. By encouraging third-party development of content for our platform, we are able to continuously extend the functionality and breadth of our offering and enhance the value of our solution. We have experienced rapid growth in our developer program, with more than 50 of our third-party developers publishing an aggregate of 218 games, applications and networked services as of September 30, 2007.

Enhanced content offering. The collection of the premium applications, content and services available to end users of Danger-enabled mobile devices ranges from traditional mobile content, including basic games and ringtones, to highly differentiated applications, content and services, including networked services, multi-player networked games, multimedia themes and productivity tools. As of September 30, 2007, our master catalog of premium applications, content and services included 161 games, 43 applications, 14 networked services, more than 2,700 ringtones and 66 background themes. The premium applications, content and services available to individual subscribers vary by mobile operator, market and Danger-enabled mobile device model.

Employees

As of September 30, 2007, we had 300 employees. Of these employees, 287 were in the United States, 12 were in Europe and one was in Australia. We also engage a number of temporary employees and consultants. None of our employees is represented by labor unions or covered by a collective bargaining agreement. We have not experienced any work stoppages, and we consider our employee relationships to be good.

Hank Nothhaft, the CEO of Danger made a cool $544,000+ this year working for Danger.

SEC filing
via

Some people will be getting the Sidekick LX for Christmas this year, while others will be getting the Sidekick Slide, but one lucky lady will be getting a one of a kind Sidekick 3 for her Christmas present. A Sidekick 3 made of wood. The creator says that the Sidekick 3 is the favorite phone of his lady friend. However, he also mentions that he did not make the screen flippable because “she’s not THAT special”. *ouch* It looks like it will be a bit bulky for her pocket, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

via SomethingAwful forums thanks Heather

We just scoured through Amazon and collected all the Sidekick LX gel skins that we could find so you’d have one place to quickly and easily browse through them. Check out all the Sidekick LX gel skins.

Apparently Motorola/Danger/T-Mobile have worked out the kinks with the Sidekick Slide and solved the powering off problem at least well enough to sell the phone again. For anyone that was waiting to get a Slide, break out that credit card.

TMobile’s Sidekick Slide Page

Looks like Danger/T-Mobile have pulled the famous MySpace app from their catalog. Is this perhaps so they can fix the buggy application that has everyone using the browser still? There have been numerous posts on poweredbydanger.com with people complaining about the poor performance and bugs as well as necessary workarounds to fix conflicts with themes downloaded from sk3themes.com, sklxthemes.com, and skslidethemes.com. Up until the app was pulled, you were able to download and install it for free and continue using it until the end of December. After that you would be charged a recurring monthly fee of $1.99. Did Danger/TMobile just treat this freebie as a beta test for an app that wasn’t quite ready for the market but needed to be pushed out in order to compete with the Helio Ocean on paper? Here’s hoping they squash the bugs and deliver a 100% app by the end of the month.

UPDATE: The MySpace App is back in the catalog. No idea why it disappeared briefly.

Two of the most loved applications by die-hard sidekickers have finally made it into the Sidekick LX catalog.
Weather Underground

Weather Underground is an application that gives you current weather conditions, radar images, and forecasts. Very handy for knowing whether or not you should grab that umbrella on the way out the door. The only downside to Weather Underground is that it is a recurring fee, i.e. you’ll be charged every month that you have it installed.
Terminal Client

Terminal Client (previously known as Terminal Monkey) seems to be an application that you either love and use constantly or you have no use for it. It’s basically a terminal client that allows you to connect via telnet or ssh to a server. This app combined with screen allows for all sorts of fun stuff. As an example, I use it to login to my server at home and turn my lights on and off. It’s also handy for people that want to chat on IRC. For those that have no idea what I’m talking about, chances are you don’t need Terminal and should save the $9.99.

thanks to silversidekick for pointing these out