[ubizmo]

Microsoft Buys Danger, but for What? - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

It's all very murky. According to their IPO disclosures in December, Danger was losing money. I suppose MS got a good deal.

[Sith_Apprentice]

on the makers of the Sidekick? Doubt that will help the sidekick sales... probably eliminate one of the competitors of the BB

[ezrunner]

sidekick a competitor? surely you Jest!

[MrPixar]

egads! M$: down with the monopoly. DOJ is going to have a field day with all the shenanigans of late

[Sith_Apprentice]

lol nothing horrible is going to happen to MSFT. IF they break it up (never gonna happen) they will be even more influential in the software/hardware market

[RobM]

lot of stuff going on with ms...I wonder what they are up to

[ubizmo]

Originally Posted by Sith_Apprentice

on the makers of the Sidekick? Doubt that will help the sidekick sales... probably eliminate one of the competitors of the BB

But look at these numbers from December. Danger is still a long way from making a profit (although I'm sure T-mobile is making a nice piece of change on them), so why would MS buy up what looks like an ailing company? Sidekick sales have been good, from what I read, but Danger doesn't manufacture or sell the devices. They design and run the (excellent) OS that drives them, along with the backend servers that make it all work--unlike RIM, which is also in the handset business.

Perhaps--even though MS may deny this--they want to integrate Danger's fine UI with a Windows engine. The UI is a big deal. We can see how a lot of people love the iPhone's UI, despite the limitations of the device itself. This is an area where RIM could learn a few things.

[ndub33]

The Sidekick will go from being a glitchy but kinda fun oriented device to being a glitchy but really boring device.

[[IFC]Area51]

Originally Posted by RobM

lot of stuff going on with ms...I wonder what they are up to

They are turning all corners before apple does, lol. They want to sink apple.

[daphne]

Originally Posted by [IFC]Area51

They are turning all corners before apple does, lol. They want to sink apple.

They're out to best Google too, what with the offer to buy Yahoo last week.

[itzminyufoo]

They've been talking with Yahoo for a while now, last year they were negotiating with Yahoo for the same price. MSFT is making moves though so I am eyeing them very closely, especially since after the debut of the iPhone trying to bring Windows Mobile down. MSFT must have something up their sleeves.

[crossbones]

They bought it so they can implement the technology into activesync because microsoft push email, and activsync over the air is crap, and completley unuasable if you are a singel user consumer. Where as the sidekicks service is on a par with the blackberry. In some ways better.

[itzminyufoo]

I had Microsoft Windows Mobile prior to purchasing my Curve.
I hated it. ActiveSync would constantly run itself all throughout the day, and I would have to manually close the task due to the memory consumption and the lack of performance due to the memory consumption.

I had the Sidekick 2 by Danger/HipTop and I loved it. It was a great communication device while I was in high school. Now that I do most communicating, the BlackBerry is great due to the AIM, and Email services that it provides. I still envy the Sidekick AIM Program however. The best AIM service I have ever used IMO.

[Sith_Apprentice]

JiveTalk blows away any IM i have seen on the Sidekick IMO. I really dont see a point to the device. The only reason i see people purchasing it is the data plan price and what it includes.

[ubizmo]

Originally Posted by Sith_Apprentice

JiveTalk blows away any IM i have seen on the Sidekick IMO. I really dont see a point to the device. The only reason i see people purchasing it is the data plan price and what it includes.

Having used the Sidekick for almost 5 years, I have to say that I'm inclined to agree that JiveTalk is a better IM client than the Sidekick's native one. On the other hand, the Sidekick is a better device overall in terms of ease of use and intuitive interface. Despite T-mobile's decision to market the Sidekick mainly to kids, a more natural demographic would be older adults who want the communication capabilities of the Blackberry without the technical overhead. No end user, ever, should have to know about things like "freeing up memory," service books, and so forth. The Sidekick, not the Blackberry, is the device for your technophobic Uncle Charlie who would still like to be able to send email with photo attachments, check things on the web, and so on. With MS taking over Danger, and the exclusive contract with T-mobile ending, we may well see the marketing strategy for the Sidekick changing as well. The fact that the Sidekick does what it does affordably (for now) is not a small point either.

[crossbones]

The killer for me was the total backup of data over the air, all the time. I've had to install a few programs on and I still dont yet have the same functionality. My big problem with the sidekick was the size and the OS though. And the camera, for a consumer "youth" device, the camera should be 10x better than it is.
If they can get the danger service on WM6 devices, RIM may have an actual competitor in the buisness sector.

[ubizmo]

The new Sidekick cameras aren't bad, and the Slide is less bulky than all previous Sidekicks. This is the first complaint I've ever heard about the OS though. I doubt MS will Þry to turn it into a business solution.

[crossbones]

Originally Posted by ubizmo

The new Sidekick cameras aren't bad, and the Slide is less bulky than all previous Sidekicks. This is the first complaint I've ever heard about the OS though. I doubt MS will Þry to turn it into a business solution.

The OS was good, but it spoon fed you everything as if you were a baby.

And I don't mean they will sell the Sidekick to buisiness, I mean they will incorporate the Danger service into Windows mobile devices. Existing devices that millions of buisiness users already have. Microsoft are an Enterprise company and buisiness users are the bread and butter for them.