After reporting T-Mobile and Microsoft revealed issues related to the Sidekick mobile phone, T-Mobile has suspended sales of the popular handset until further notice.
Microsoft purchased the now subsidiary Danger to gain a larger presence in the mobile market, but this cloud computing disaster has left Microsoft with egg on its face.
The issues have occurred for more than one week, and the source of the problems appear to be related to a server used by Danger to restore data. Microsoft hasn't disclosed what the exact problem is, but it's likely a technical glitch on the Danger servers.
Even though both companies are working quickly to fix the problem, it's possible that irreversible damage has been done.
T-Mobile will likely suffer a setback due to the data loss, as some customers are likely to lose faith in the No. 4 wireless provider in the U.S. The wireless provider has continually struggled against competition with Verizon Wireless and AT&T.
Microsoft has recently attempted to attract new supporters to cloud computing, which is likely going to be a bit more difficult due to this issue with the Sidekick.
Both companies will now have to work in the next several weeks, and likely months, to fix their weakened images among the public. An estimate on the percentage of the 1 million phone owners who may have been affected is not available, but at least some subscribers have lost their data permanently.
There is an online service designed to give Sidekick owners the ability to save photos, contact information and other data when it is gone. Despite being temporarily down periodically over the past week, Microsoft said online data should be back to normal.
Phone owners facing the biggest risk of data loss are those who completely remove the battery or users who let the battery go completely dead.
