Can T-Mobile and Microsoft turn around the Sidekick wipeout? The companies are making an effort with an announcement Monday that they will offer some payment to those who lost all their personal data. They also offered some hope for restoring data.
On Saturday, the companies said a Microsoft subsidiary — aptly named Danger — experienced a “data service disruption” that erased all Sidekick users’ contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists, and photos. The Sidekick smartphone features social connectivity, so personal data is particularly important to many of the device’s owners.
‘Prospects’ of Recovery
Late Monday, the companies announced that “recent efforts indicate the prospects of recovering some lost content may now be possible.” In its previous announcement, the companies had said only that a team was working “around the clock” to figure out how to recover the information.
T-Mobile is also now saying it will send customers who “have experienced a significant and permanent loss of personal content” a $100 “customer appreciation card.” The company said the card, which can be used toward products and services from T-Mobile, is in addition to a free month of data service that has already been offered to Sidekick data customers.
T-Mobile said details about the card will be sent within the next two weeks, and no action is needed on the part of customers.
Some industry observers say the Sidekick wipeout could be a fatal blow to the device, especially as it faces additional competition from other smartphones that may have greater appeal to the same youth market, such as Motorola’s CLIQ.
Won’t ‘Change the Equation’
The episode is also raising questions about cloud computing in general. Although Microsoft/Danger hasn’t revealed details, it is hard to imagine that such data loss would happen if there were backup and other disaster-recovery mechanisms in place. In fact, when Microsoft purchased Danger last year,…