The cellphone provider T-Mobile and Danger, a subsidiary of Microsoft and one of T-Mobile’s partners, said over the weekend that a technical glitch in their computer systems would probably result in some customers losing their personal information like contact names, phone numbers and digital photos.
Sidekick LX.
T-Mobile and Danger operate what has become known as a cloud computing service to store important information for their customers. In theory, such a service should make life easier on people by leaving the management of complex computing systems to the pros and having data held in sophisticated computing centers. But when problems crop up, embarrassment ensues.
Last week, T-Mobile and Danger, which manages the data services, began grappling with a range of technical issues affecting users of the Sidekick smartphone.
Most notably, customers who had removed the batteries from their phones or had let their batteries run out faced the prospect of permanently losing their contact, calendar, photo and to-do list information.
Employees at the companies have worked over the weekend to try and fix these problems, but, as of Sunday afternoon, there were still some data and software application service flaws.
“Our teams continue to work around the clock in hopes of discovering some way to recover this information,” T-Mobile said in a statement on its Web site. “However, the likelihood of a successful outcome is extremely low.”
A spokeswoman for Microsoft, which acquired Danger in February 2008, said the company continued to work on retrieving the data and hoped to have more updates for consumers by Monday.
T-Mobile is estimated to have sold about a million of the Sidekick devices. It is unclear how many customers have lost all of their information at this time. “We don’t think it’s a majority of the customers,” said Peter Dobrow, a spokesman for T-Mobile.
The situation has resulted in another black eye for Microsoft in the mobile phone market.
Microsoft bought Danger with the hope of adding some pizazz to smartphones running its Windows Mobile software. The Sidekick device, with its flashy, flip-out screen, had proved a hit with consumers and had a strong set of complementary software.
But close to 18 months after the acquisition, Microsoft has yet to show off any groundbreaking phone designs or software services to blunt the momentum of Apple and its iPhone.
Microsoft plans to release a new version of its flagship Windows software later this month and then introduce a suite of cloud computing services over the next year. The company is looking to prove that it can catch up to and then outflank rivals like Google and Amazon.com with its cloud services and software aimed at businesses and consumers.
Microsoft stressed that its own technology was not to blame for the T-Mobile service issues. Danger had its own technology, which has remained in use after Microsoft’s acquisition.
As for T-Mobile, the company had already started apologizing to customers, while promising additional information by Monday. It has also started crediting people’s accounts with one month of free data service and is considering providing additional compensation for people who lost their information.
“We will work hard to try and make things right for them,” Mr. Dobrow said. “That said, it has been a very difficult and disappointing week.”
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