theregoesdave

At one point the Danger Sidekick was quite possibly the best mobile communications device available. In addition to being a smartphone, it had excellent texting and instant messaging applications in a unique and usable form factor.

Last year Danger was acquired by Microsoft and in those few short months, the division is ready to implode. Microsoft lost gobs of customer data including their contacts, calendars and photos. To make matters worse, the company didn’t have any backups of their data. Oh and now there are rumors that the next generation Sidekick may never see the light of day.

So what possible silver lining could there be for T-Mobile?

T-Mobile was the exclusive US carrier for Sidekick devices in the US. While they weren’t the ones responsible for the massive loss of data, T-Mobile service reps took the flack for Microsoft’s misstep.

Now the company is making a daring play to regain the trust of their customers and make up for the snafu. T-Mobile customers are reportedly being allowed to ditch their contracts. This gives their customers the handy choice of getting a brand new device from T-Mobile or packing up and going to another carrier.

Beyond the fact that I can’t imagine any other carriers making such an offer, the move makes it hard to hate T-Mobile. Plus the company is leading the charge on adopting Android and has a more reliable network than AT&T from my experience.

So, Sidekick users. What did you decide?

• Microsoft goes schizo, starts blaming Danger for lost data
• Microsoft’s iPhone killers: The Turtle and next-gen Sidekick
• Danger, Inc Updates
• Blackberry Bold released through AT&T, Walmart
• Windows Live Mesh Gets It Half Right