More Pink/Danger Leaked Info on the State of Things
There’s an extensive (and well written) article over on RoughlyDrafted about Microsoft, Danger, Windows Mobile, Apple, et all. If you have the time, I highly recommend you read it to get a much fuller picture on the state of things. It’s one of the most comprehensive and up to date “State of the Union” when it comes to Danger/Microsoft/Project Pink/etc. That said, I know not everyone has the time to dive into such an article, so here are some highlighted snippets from a RoughlyDrafted’s Microsoft/Danger source that I thought would be most interesting to Hiptop3.com readers:
# The source says that the details about the Project Pink phones are true and that they wouldn’t be surprised if the photos were an intentional leak, however the rumors about Microsoft working with Verizon and the unhappy employees are definitely from an unhappy (ex) employee.
# What about handset makers?
“Let’s start with the handset makers. Motorola has announced their intention to abandon WinMo for Android, and Palm has already abandoned WinMo in favor of their own WebOS. A few others, such as HTC, have been hedging their bets, announcing their support for Android, but not yet willing to publicly disown WinMo. Now the story has been leaked that Microsoft has been secretly working with Sharp on this (doomed) [Pink] project for over a year, cutting everyone else out of the picture completely.
”You figured out the likely consequences of this over a month ago so I won’t belabor the point other than to say that Sharp, who has been a terrific partner to Danger throughout the Hiptop/Sidekick era, was no doubt hoping that Pink would allow them to expand their phone offerings in the Americas, a dream which has now been dashed due to typical Microsoft blundering. I doubt that either Sharp or any of the other handset OEM’s will ever take Microsoft at their word again.
# Trying to build 4 versions of the Pink phones?
“the Pink planners decided to try to build both UMTS and CDMA phones in both form factors, for a grand total of four different SKUs. None of the other smartphone platform builders were foolish enough to try to build more than one phone at a time, and whoever made this decision didn’t take into account the added complexity involved in coding to support two different radio modules (from two different vendors, no less!) for two completely different radio technologies, not to mention validating and testing the RF performance of four different antennas (since each form factor and radio technology requires its own antenna design). At some point the UMTS project was placed on the back burner, and for all I know it may have already been cancelled, but the damage to the project has been done.”
# Pitting Verizon against T-Mobile
”The final operator who is going to be pissed is T-Mobile, who has been just as loyal of a partner to Danger as Sharp has been. I don’t know exactly what Microsoft has been telling them, but they have no doubt realized that they’ve been cut out of this deal in favor of their largest competitor. What’s worse is that apparently Microsoft has been lying to them this whole time about the amount of resources that they’ve been putting behind Sidekick development and support (in reality, it was cut down to a handful of people in Palo Alto managing some contractors in Romania, Ukraine, etc.).
“The reason for the deceit wasn’t purely to cover up the development of Pink but also because Microsoft could get more money from T-Mobile for their support contract if T-Mobile thought that there were still hundreds of engineers working on the Sidekick platform. As we saw from their recent embarrassment with Sidekick data outages, that has clearly not been the case for some time.
# So what happens now?
“The most likely possibility is that anything worth salvaging from Pink will get folded into the larger WiMo 7 project, where it should have been located in the first place. Another possibility would be another massive layoff and shutting down the Danger offices, but with the economic crunch, I doubt that Microsoft would choose to take the hit of handing out severance packages to all the affected engineers, and breaking the lease on the buildings.”
# And finally, what all of us wish would happen, and the reasons why it probably won’t:
”The smartest course of action (and therefore the one that Microsoft is least likely to take!) would be for them to recognize the value of the original Danger platform that they acquired, and to rebuild the Hiptop/Sidekick into a force to compete with Android (which is, after all, “Sidekick 2.0” in many respects). This won’t happen for three reasons: 1) Microsoft’s irrational hatred of Java, 2) Microsoft’s irrational love of Windows in all of its horrible flavors, and 3) all the Danger folks who loved the Sidekick platform have left or likely will leave soon, and Microsoft has no in-house expertise in Java or the Danger platform.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:15 am
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October 9th, 2009 at 10:23 am
RIP Sidekick 🙁
October 9th, 2009 at 10:32 am
microsoft is DIRTY BUESINESS FOREVER and MICRSOFT ALWAY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 9th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I attempted to post this article (Actually AppleInsider’s identical version. not sure which 1 was first) at PoweredByDager.com/forums and it was taken down within a few hours. This always means there is too much truth in the post.
I especially was intrigued by the info of Danger/Sidekick Operations being shipped off by Micosoft to contractors in third world Ukraine & Romania without T-Mobile’s knowledge!! (which explains why everything has been so buggy lately, even before the BIG CRASH/OUTAGE)
I agree. Great article. Sad state of affairs for the future of Sidekick/Hiptop. T-Mobile needs to get some straight answers from Microsoft and start damage control ASAP. If not, their Sidekick-Faithful will abandon them in droves (including me!!)
October 9th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I meant PoweredByDanger.com/forums
October 9th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
This is like hearing nails on a chalkboard. The tmobile Sidekick is so successful and the customers continuously come back year after year. Why is microsoft sooooo stubborn?
October 9th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
hahaha i posted this on forums.t-mobile.com n got erased from there tooo PLUS i got banned soo yup =( im REALLY disappointed rite now!
October 9th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
HOW THE F**K ARE YOU GUNNA BUY SOMETHING AND THE THRO IT AWAY ?
October 9th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Damn, and I wanted to leave my G1 and get a Sidekick LX 2009.
Although the G1 is realy cool, I miss the simplicity of Sidekicks, and how nice they look.
And the icon status it holds. When I heard about Microsoft buying Danger long ago, I remember how excited I was. I had no idea Microsoft would turn it into sh*t.
I guess I’ll just wait for another ugly Android phone to come out. Or I’ll upgrade to a BlackBerry 9700
October 9th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
it truely is a sad state of affairs i truely came to the sidekick party too late like when they were pouring the punch and throwing the food away late but i hate to see such loyal customers like ourselves who have embraced this device as more than just a phone but as a social networking device if it came down to me going to another carrier if they did us like telstra did the aussies and cut our sidekick services off i dunno how many people would do it but if helio didnt have such high deposits i could see a flood of sidekick people going to helio by virgin mobile the ocean 2 is as close as they are gonna get to a lx09 but if thats what it comes to itll either be that or if i had to stay with t mo i’d go back and be basic phone service and unlimited web and messaging with myfaves im not getting a berry those things to me are not user friendly and i despise touch screens
October 9th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
i thought microsoft would be a good thing for the sidekicks bcuz they would be bringing millions of $$ into the race to allow the sidekick to catch up to all the other phones..i love the sidekick..i would never buy either of those pink phones id prob change to the iphone or g1 and i really dont want to. why cant microsoft be grown up adults and realize the sidekicks are more popular then their crappy winmo phones. the lx09 does everything u need a communication master of a phone to do…aside from the crappy download catalog it beats the g1 and iphone when switching from texts to aim to myspace…windows could have made the sidekick the phone king with their power…i dont understand why they would destroy a perfectly fine company for what? the money? i dunno..
October 10th, 2009 at 1:19 am
Ok so here’s the plan
Make A Website
Every1 Electronically Aigns A Petition
SAVE Danger!!! Save SIDEKICKs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Cause I can’t see myself using sluggish android or a stupid iphone………….)
(¬_¬) Worst Comes To Worst My Old Trusty Nokia Does The Job …. Hey Who Doesn’t Love Snake? (^_^)
October 10th, 2009 at 4:02 am
They have until jan to get their shit together. If by then I’m still dealing with this crappy buggy service and don’t hear anything redeming coming out of the ms/danger camp about the kicks I’m selling my lx09 and unlocking the iphone3gs….
Sad but true….
October 10th, 2009 at 7:37 am
I posted it as a quote without adding personal opinions (according to…, they say that…, etc.). I have learned on PBD that can get you into big trouble.
October 10th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
QUIT WAITING FOR YOUR STUFF. IT’S OFFICIAL IT IS NEVER EVER COMING BACK.
October 10th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
MICROSOFT IS FAULT THAT IT…….
MICROSOFT IS DIRTY BUESSINESS
MICROSOFT MUST DOWN!!!!! AND DANGER IS BEST
MICROSOFT IS EVIL
MICROSOFT NOT SUPPORT!!!!
WE MUST KICK OUT OF MICROSOFT IS OUT!!!!!
October 10th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
“MICROSOFT IS FAULT THAT IT…….
MICROSOFT IS DIRTY BUESSINESS
MICROSOFT MUST DOWN!!!!! AND DANGER IS BEST
MICROSOFT IS EVIL
MICROSOFT NOT SUPPORT!!!!
WE MUST KICK OUT OF MICROSOFT IS OUT!!!!!”
Yea What He Said!
October 10th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
What fucking language do the two people above me speak? Stupid ass mother fuckers.
October 11th, 2009 at 9:47 am
this is it…its OVER…this is my last SK…its bin fun
October 12th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
its the nokia n900 for me
more powerful than the iphone