Before Android, there was the Sidekick
In October 2002 a small company called Danger released the Hiptop, sold by T-Mobile as the Sidekick. The screen swung around to reveal a full keyboard. It ran AIM, email and a real web browser on a flat monthly data fee. Musicians, athletes and reality-TV stars carried it everywhere.
- File
- 0008
- Year
- 2002–2011
- Category
- Tech / Internet
- Filed in
- Culture
The hook
In October 2002 a small company called Danger released the Hiptop, sold by T-Mobile as the Sidekick. The screen swung around to reveal a full keyboard. It ran AIM, email and a real web browser on a flat monthly data fee. Musicians, athletes and reality-TV stars carried it everywhere.
The Swivel
Push the corner and the screen spun 180 degrees over a QWERTY keyboard. Your contacts and messages lived on Danger's servers, so a lost phone meant a new phone with everything already on it. That was cloud sync before anyone called it that.
Half a turn, then a keyboard.
What was happening
Phones were for calls
Most phones then had a number pad and a small screen. The Sidekick was built for typing: instant messages, email, early social sites. It turned up in music videos, on red carpets and on reality TV, and it made texting all day look like a style, not a chore.
The detail people forgot
Its co-founder started android
Danger was co-founded by Andy Rubin, Matt Hershenson and Joe Britt. Rubin left in 2003 and started Android, which Google bought in 2005. "Android" had been his nickname at Apple since 1989. Microsoft bought Danger in 2008.
Why it matters now
The last Sidekick, the 2011 Sidekick 4G, ran Android. By then the swivel was gone, but the rest had become standard: a phone built for messaging, always online, backed up to a server. Every phone now works the way the Sidekick did.
The swivel died. The idea won.
Words: LSMG Editorial.
