The Sidekick Was First

Don't be distracted by the sparkle -- it's the user interface that makes the device shine.

During my 3L year in law school I worked as a legal intern at Danger, maker of the Sidekick. I knew of the Sidekick -- a friend at school had one, and I'd seen lots of celebrities with them in magazines. I thought of the Sidekick as the Blackberry for the club crowd. Still, I'd never actually played with one myself.

When I did finally get to fiddle with one, I was shocked. The UI was elegant and easy to use. The keyboard was smooth, the screen was gorgeous, and the Internet connection was snappy. All in all, a great device.

The iPhone was released, and the Sidekick was all but forgotten. Surprisingly, none of the reviews declaring the iPhone the greatest invention since sliced bread even mentioned the Sidekick -- only the Blackberry was discussed as competition.

I get it. The iPhone does feel like the Future. The simplicity of the iPhone -- hold the 2001-esque obelisk in the palm of your hand and the whole Internet is yours -- is the key physical innovation over from earlier devices. iTunes, the iTunes Store and Safari are perfectly integrated with the device. By contrast, the Sidekick, with it's flip-out screen, feels cool to use but looks infintely more complicated than the iPhone's power button.

Still, the complaints I've heard from friends, first about the EDGE and then regarding the 3G iPhone -- trouble typing, no cut-and-paste, impossible-to-use SMS -- are irrelevant when using the Sidekick; Danger eliminated those problems in 2006!

From the very first demo of the iPhone, it was obvious it was a knockoff of the Sidekick. The UI demo Steve Jobs did -- calling two people and then merging the calls -- is the exact same demo I'd given to all my friends to show off the incredible UI polish and attention to detail by the Sidekick developers. Sure, there were some differences -- most notably that Apple's artists had prettied up the iPhone UI as compared to the 8-bit basement wackos who drew up the Sidekick's -- but it was clear that this was an evolutionary change, not the revolutionary leap everyone made it out to be.

So what's holding the Sidekick back? One writer argues that The Man is to blame:

But it wasn't as if the Sidekick was unheard of. As soon as I wandered out of the land of white folks in suits-and-ties, black and latino kids would rush up to me and gab about the Sidekick. During one trip, a latina middle-schooler stopped me on the sidewalk and asked if I'd gotten the latest firmware update yet. "It has JavaScript support!" she enthused. Browsing the Sidekick user forums bore this out -- it was all black and latino schoolchildren.

...

But, of course, neither minorities nor schoolchildren rule the world, so the Sidekick has been written out of history. 2007 was the first time anyone had thought to give a smartphone a decent UI, or a web browser, or an over-the-air application store. Well, at least it was the first time anyone thought to tell white people.

Sounds like a case for Undercover Brother.

I now think of the Sidekick as the Scion to the Blackberry's Lexus -- similar machines aimed at very different crowds. True, the Sidekick is made by Danger and the Blackberry is made by RIM, (while both the Scion and the Lexus are made by Toyota), but otherwise the comparison holds.

Both offer a great screen, Internet connectivity, a keyboard and a well-designed interface.

Like the Lexus, the Blackberry has a mature, understated, sophistocated look and is aimed at the business professional. The Scion and Sidekick, on the other hand, are highly customizeable, flashy, and offer features aimed at the young -- sweet rims and a bangin' stereo in the Scion, and video games, MySpace and great IM options on the Sidekick.

The Sidekick is a great device and hasn't gotten the respect it deserves. Critics have been treating the Sidekick as a dead platform, but I say long live the Sidekick! 

[Note: Article via Daring Fireball, image via Slashphone.]