Coming Soon: The Sidekick III!

The other day, we covered the story about the evil girl who stole a Sidekick II out of a cab & refused to give it back. The story is still going, believe it or not — it even got picked up by the news media. As entertaining as this little online drama has been, we’re not going to get into it here — the details are sort of complicated. We’ll just hold it up as an example of how far people will go to get a Sidekick, and to get their Sidekick back.

It’s also an excuse to talk about the Sidekick III. Rumors about it popped up online last winter, but no one had any details. T-Mobile’s official Sidekick site has been quiet, but techie and phone sites have burning up with gossip for months. All the rumor-mongering created a strong buzz for the SK3 long before anything official was announced.

After months of speculation (and a little bit of rumor-spreading) we finally have some confirmation on it. Engadget reported recently that Sidekick 3 is offically being released on July 10th. Other phone review sites like Mobiletracker and Mobile Hipster have confirmed this, and followed up with posts about the SK3’s specs and even parts of the manual. (Click on the links, to see for yourself.)

So what’s the big deal about this thing? Well, Sidekick 2 is popular with younger kids who’ve grown up with IM and Internet access. For a lot of high school and college kids, their online presence is an important part of their social lives. It’s how they make plans, hook up, even meet new boyfriends and girlfriends. So having a device that keeps them connected is important, especially if it’s more portable than a notebook.

Sidekicks are also popular with creative professionals & IT people. Like the kids, they like having a portable tool that gives them online access. On top of that, the IT and creative types like having a multi-function device with the features of a PDA or smartphone, but would rather not be seen with something as accountant-like as a Treo or Blackberry.

From the early specs they’ve released, the Sidekick 3 will meet the needs of all these groups and then some. If you’re considering getting one, or if you have an SK2 and want to upgrade to SK3, here’s a quick rundown on what it has to offer. Besides all the good stuff that the SK2 comes with, SK3’s got these new features: