Microsoft to Danger: Pwned!
It’s official; Microsoft announced that its acquisition of Danger has been completed. Danger of course is the company behind Sidekick client software and we’ve all known for a while that this deal was underway. So what will this mean for Danger? First and foremost, the company will become part of a newly formed group within Microsoft dubbed the Premium Mobile Experiences (PMX) team that "focuses on consumer-facing mobile projects". The team falls under the Mobile Comms division and Danger co-founders Matt Hershenson and Joe Britt will stay on, reporting to the head of the PMX team. There’s nothing like receiving a small fortune to watch someone else run your brainchild. Head of PMX, Roz Ho:
“We imagine a mobile experience that embraces sharing and celebrating relationships and personal moments. Combining Danger and Microsoft talents together in the Premium Mobile Experiences team is how we’re going to deliver cool, new, fun mobile experiences to consumers. We want people to smile every time they look at their phone.”
Truth be told, the combination of Danger’s brains and Microsoft’s brawn has the potential to be quite a tandem. As Microsoft attempts to strengthen its presence in the mobile sector, only time will tell how this deal will pan out for users. What do you think Sidekick fans, good news or bad?
Danger OS + Microsoft Windows + ME= success!!!!!!!!
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Makes me glad I convinced my fiancee to switch over to the Curve.
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Mmmm. So they are shooting for Motorola quality now. Hah.
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LOL id out m$ above moto anyday this can only be an impovment. lol watch all the teens get hookin windows mobile instead of the iphone.
I can see it now Mommy mommy i want a phone with windows mobile on it!
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this sucks. I bought sidekicks so I dont have to deal with WM.
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Hopefully Microsoft will keep the two platforms distinct and separate.. Not to mention they should pump funding into the Danger side before they crash and burn.
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MS needs to utilize Danger’s ease of use OS and simply improve on it while keeping it somewhat seperate from the WM OS. If they can also provide much better server support then Danger did then they have a winning os.
Danger was looked down on for their poor server upkeeping and less then stellar os improvements. Hopefully with MS things will improve for the better.
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Here’s my theory: Microsoft is going to pull a Zune for phones using the Danger OS as a base. With the Zune was a total departure from the typical Microsoft way of doing MP3 players with partners. They basically said “screw you” to all of their “Play for Sure” partners and came out with something that, in the end, was far superior to what their partners had created.
I think Microsoft is going to either 1) abandon Windows Mobile for their own use and go with something derived from the Danger OS, or 2) layer the Danger UI on top of the Windows Mobile kernel. Either of these would be exclusive to MS - part of a “premium experience”.
Keep in mind that the Danger OS is written entirely in Java, which is relatively easy to port to C#/.NET.
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there’s no way this ends well. especially for d-wade.
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I effin hate windows mobile! So if the sidekicks start using it Tmo can kiss my ass goodbye! I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy an iPhone anyway…
I have nothing against microsoft && I believe that dangers services could only benefit from being part of microsoft, in the past month there have been 2 outages && I live close to an airport so data services are already limited for sidekicks around here, but windows mobile is still sucky && I’ve had all the sidekicks && I’m used to danger. (Even with there sometimes lack of development && server probs) I could never see Windows being on the sidekicks…its just WRONG!!! Lol
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I see it like this… as I’m typing this comment from my sidekick lx I look down and see one of todays most under apreciated and under developed phones. The sidekick form factor is simply the finest mobile phone form in the world if you are heavily into mobile messaging. The keyboard is fabulous and this is what keeps me buying. That coupled with the great email client… I just can’t turn it away. I believe however that the microsoft purchase is good and bad. We all know the windows mobile is terrible and would only ruin the kick. With any hope they will inprove upon the danger os and add things all users want like video, gps, threaded txt msgs, better browser support, and small tweaks here and there. This of course would be ideal. If microsoft opens their eyes and just lets things be rather than trying to “revolutionize” something that already works everyone will end up happy. My sidekick os isn’t broken… it doesn’t need repair… it just needs to be refreshed. Please ms… don’t mess this one up!
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not a good thing i can see danger going down hill now iphone here i come
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