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Will the Sidekick data issue affect the future of mobile phone cloud services?

The T-Mobile Sidekick was my very first fully converged device (see my 2002 Geek.com review) and I don't recall ever hearing about a significant data issue over the 7 years since T-Mobile has been carrying and supporting the Sidekick devices. The Danger seamless syncing was on the cutting edge of cloud services and I wonder if this service outage will tarnish perceptions of cloud services outside of the connected tech community. It looks like Microsoft (fairly new owner of Danger) may be able to recover most of the data now and may have put out the earlier statements so people didn't get their hopes up too much. We in the mobile community have all been talking about the service outage and some stories make it sound like the end of the world, but I wonder if the teenager using the Sidekick cares so much to never use their Sidekick again.
Written by Matthew Miller, Contributing Writer

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The T-Mobile Sidekick was my very first fully converged device (see my 2002 Geek.com review) and I don't recall ever hearing about a significant data issue over the 7 years since T-Mobile has been carrying and supporting the Sidekick devices. The Danger seamless syncing was on the cutting edge of cloud services and I wonder if this service outage will tarnish perceptions of cloud services outside of the connected tech community. It looks like Microsoft (fairly new owner of Danger) may be able to recover most of the data now and may have put out the earlier statements so people didn't get their hopes up too much. We in the mobile community have all been talking about the service outage and some stories make it sound like the end of the world, but I wonder if the teenager using the Sidekick cares so much to never use their Sidekick again.

The outage occurred just about a week ago and I have to think if people are really addicted to their Sidekicks that they have rebuilt most of their contact list and calendar and are happily texting away again. It will be nice for them to get their photos and other missing data back again and I think we will most likely not see them changing any of their previous reliance on the cloud for all syncing and backups. T-Mobile has made the Sidekick experience a seamless one for years that owners just use and enjoy without knowing all about the backend.

The Sidekick experience is similar to the RIM BlackBerry experience and we have seen several data outages (not losses though from what I recall) on the RIM servers that knocked out service temporarily, yet people continue to buy BlackBerry devices in huge numbers. I believe we will continue to see embracing of cloud syncing and backup services in the smartphone world and as we have seen with the extremely successful Sidekick line it is very reliable.

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