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AOL Dropping RIM for Danger Sidekick

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the danger-sidekick-robinson dept.

Eponymous Meow Word writes "After trying to cut the cord for wireless e-mail with RIM, AOL is pulling the plug on its mobile communicator, citing a move away from its older wireless technology. The disgruntled can get a discount on a shiny new T-Mobile color Sidekick." Wireless email is a rather small niche, and it's cool that current users won't be left high and dry, but it looks like they'll have to pay some money to continue using the service.

4 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Why a small niche? by Fnkmaster · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Why should wireless email be a small niche? As best I can tell, it's the most useful application of wireless data capabilities. The problem is still in the UI and portability, as best as I can ascertain (well, and the cost). If there were a better way to navigate emails and send emails from a wireless device that wasn't overly bulky, it wouldn't be so niche. I mean, most modern digital cell phones now will let you set up and check email, it's just an excruciating user experience to try to do much of it (and I want to push a single button and get to my damned Inbox, not have to navigate 4 or 5 levels deep in REMARKABLY slow server-side menus like I have to currently with every TMobile phone out there, not to mention the fact that about 30% of the time, one of those menu loads hangs forcing me to restart the whole process). We don't need 3G networks as much as we need some basic thought put into how people really want to use small wireless devices.


    The Sidekick is great, but too bulky for your average Joe. It's too bulky for me too, to be honest, so I just suffer with my otherwise very excellent Samsung S105 cell phone, which nominally lets me monitor incoming emails. The most promising models I've seen are the upcoming SPH-I500 (as in here) and similar phone-form-factor Palm PDAs, which come very close to what I want. Add one of those newfangled laser-keyboard devices, and you've got a winner IMHO. And PLEASE stop sticking cameras on every phone.

  2. Global Wireless Solutions by FooGoo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When will someone invent a cheap global wireless solution for email. I don't live on land anymore more I live on a sailboat which spends most of the time in the middle of an ocean. Right now I am using sats for my access which is very expensive. I want a global communicator like in the TV show "Earth Final Conflict" I know the tech exists so someone build the damn thing.

    --
    People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them
  3. Actually, this is kind of a point of frustration by subreality · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've always viewed email as asynchronous communication. I answer my emails when I have time, several times a day. If I'm in the middle of something, I don't pay attention to it until I can take a break. But other people don't see it that way, notably my management chain at work. They're already trying to sell me on the idea of one of these things so I can get my email outside work. (WTF for? I carry a cell phone for emergencies. Exactly what kind of a network failure do they think I'm going to fix with email? But I digress.)

    I certainly don't want to discourage the technology, and there are times when I wish I could just drag a decent web browser (NexTel can bite me) out of my pocket. But I'm just afraid that people are going to lose sight of one of the big advantages of email - the fact that it's asynchronous, which is the only way that I can deal with it when I get over a hundred legitimate emails a day. Having my phone ring a hundred times a day will just make me go insane.

  4. Color Sidekick upgrades shipping from T-Mobile by leighklotz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    By the way, the pent-up upgrades to color devices for existing customers shipped on Friday. Some have already arrived.