T-Mobile Sidekick

The Danger Hiptop (stylized hiptop), also branded and sold as T-Mobile Sidekick, is a mobile smartphone and communicator series that was produced by Danger, Inc. from 2002 to 2010, developed in close partnership with T-Mobile US and with most models manufactured by Sharp Corporation. The Hiptops were designed to be held horizontally with both hands, allowing typing with two thumbs on a QWERTY keyboard that is revealed by a 'flip out' display rotating 180 degrees on a hinge pin (with the exception of one model, Hiptop Slide). They ran on a cloud-based, Java-made software synchronizing with back-end services provided and maintained by Danger, holding personal data and offering services such as email, instant messaging, and a catalog of downloadable apps.

Danger, Inc. was cofounded by Andy Rubin, who would become the author of Android. The original Hiptop was released on October 1, 2002, manufactured by Flextronics. Described at the time as a "PDA phone", it was notable for combining a cell phone with a full HTML supporting web browser, integrated AOL Instant Messenger, a keyboard and a navigation scroll wheel, running on the GSM and GPRS cell network of T-Mobile. The second generation Hiptop/Sidekick debuted in 2004, manufactured by Sharp, with a slimmer design and the addition of a VGA camera. This was followed by the third generation in 2006 which replaced the scroll wheel with a trackball and added a music player, Bluetooth, and faster EDGE data. The line diversified in 2007 with the Sidekick iD, billed as a budget-friendly model with cut features, as well as the Sidekick Slide, a model manufactured by Motorola and with a slide design instead of a swiveling screen. The fourth generation top model was the Sidekick LX, increasing the display size to 3.0 inches, and this was followed by the Sidekick 2008 and the final model, Sidekick LX 2009, with numerous hardware upgrades including 3G connectivity and social networking software integration - this one was later also sold as the Mobiflip or the Sharp Jump, with modified software and not using Danger's data services.

The Hiptop/Sidekick became popular especially among young consumers, unlike similar devices during its early years, namely Palm and BlackBerry, which found more business success. Danger, Inc. was purchased by Microsoft for $500 million in 2008, who used the technology to build the ill-fated Microsoft Kin. Danger's cloud services were shut down on May 31, 2011, ending the Hiptop/Sidekick data services after almost nine years in operation. The Sidekick was revived later that year in the form of a 4G device running Android 2.2 Froyo, manufactured by Samsung, using a similar form factor to the originals. The Sidekick became incredibly popular in the U.S., at its peak receiving much attention in American pop culture and now considered to be iconic. Some models were also marketed, to lesser success, in Canada (by Fido/Rogers), Australia (by Telstra), Singapore and a number of European countries.