Motorola gets kick in the side as T-Mobile USA suspends Sidekick

T-Mobile USA Inc. suspended sales of its Sidekick Slide on Friday after manufacturer Motorola Inc. informed the carrier that some of the devices power off when the sliding door on the device is opened or closed. The device went on sale earlier this month at $200.
“Motorola is currently working to identify the root cause of the power cycle issue in affected Sidekick Slide devices,” said T-Mobile USA in a release Friday evening. “The T-Mobile Sidekick LX and Sidekick iD are not affected by this issue.”
Motorola did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.
While Motorola has had manufacturing quality issues in the past, in fact it has been credited lately with delivering largely glitch-free phones to market. The company has the top market-share position in the United States, though this year it has slipped from second to third place in global vendor rankings.
The Sidekick LX and Sidekick iD, also on sale at T-Mobile USA, are made by Sharp Corp. Danger created the hardware reference design to the Sidekick products. T-Mobile USA announced the products in September.