Observers say T-Mobile’s resumption of sales of the Sidekick — which had been sidelined since last month’s massive loss of customer data — is a good start. But, they say, the incident has proven costly and points to a risky tactic that the carrier’s competitors have stopped using.
The failure hit at a bad time for T-Mobile. “This was a fairly high-profile black eye for T-Mobile at a particularly challenging time for them,” said Al Hilwa, director of application development for IDC. “It is not the kind of publicity anyone wants. … In the whole scheme of things, the company didn’t lose a lot of data. But it’s clear that people get upset. People have zero tolerance for this.”
The problem was traced to servers run by Microsoft subsidiary Danger, which operates the cloud-based service for T-Mobile. T-Mobile declined to comment on what steps were taken to prevent a recurrence. Microsoft didn’t provide information after a phone inquiry to its PR firm.
New Pricing
Regardless, the Sidekick is back. T-Mobile said sales have resumed under revised pricing. The Sidekick LX2009 will cost $149.99 with a two-year contract, and the Sidekick 2008 will run $49.00 with the same commitment. Previously, the LX2009 was $179.99 and the 2008 was $99.99 with two-year commitments. T-Mobile also is offering $100 gift cards to subscribers who lost data.
The next few months likely will be key. “The Sidekick environment is probably going to bounce back,” Hilwa said. “The whole scheme of smart devices is very challenging for Sidekick right now. There is a lot going on with the iPhone, Android and even Windows Mobile. T-Mobile and Microsoft will have to go back and win the trust of users again.”
The situation illustrates the downside of T-Mobile’s high-risk, high-reward tactic of putting its brand on the device. “T-Mobile is the only one…