PALO ALTO, Calif.—Details on the Sidekick III emerged out of the Federal Communications Commission, in effect giving Palo Alto-based Danger Inc., a small handset software vendor, continued traction in the United States market. The device likely will be sold by T-Mobile USA Inc., which previously introduced the Sidekick I and II in the United States.
The Sidekick III is built by Sharp Corp., according to the FCC documents. The FCC must approve all radio-frequency devices.
The Sidekick is marketed to young adults as a cool form factor for data use. It is sold by T-Mobile, SunCom Wireless, online retailers such as LetsTalk.com and Amazon.com, and by T-Mobile in several European countries. At T-Mobile Germany, Danger has a content partnership with Kicker Online, a popular sports Web site, which will no doubt see a boost in usage as the World Cup games play out this month.
Danger’s mobile Internet platform is a Java-compatible, client/server platform and application suite. Founded in 2000, Danger is privately held, backed by venture capital and corporate investors.
In another sign of health, Danger in March opened an engineering center in Duluth, Georgia to help it realize its plans for growth. In April, the firm announced it had joined the MSN Mobile Developer Program, allowing Danger to extend services such as MSN Messenger to owners of the Sidekick models of mobile phones.
