Microsoft's Sidekick Mess: Valuable Less For iPhone Users

Alright, remember when Apple launched MobileMe services to replace .Mac but there were issues with?  Well, that was growing pain and things continued to get better with each passing day (actually, we had some issues with MobileMe for about 30 minutes or so this morning).

Over the weekend, T-Mobile's Sidekick users were cut off from their data in the cloud when their connections were severed.  By all accounts, data have been lost and some might never see them again.

Forget the blame for now.  Forget that Microsoft bought Danger and is now responsible for providing services to thousands of Sidekick users.  Now, it's about us MobileMe users and just about anyone who relies on the cloud for computing and data access.

MobileMe works very differently from Sidekick services.  We've got copies of our information in Macs or PCs as well as on our iPhones and iPod Touches.  Apple has servers with our data but unless something weird or deliberate happens, MobileMe users are not going to suffer the same effects as Sidekick users in terms of completely getting cut off from the data.

However, as Apple continue to innovate, introduce new products and services, and becomes increasingly more reliant on cloud computing, I can't help but be a bit worried.  The future of mobile computing is a certainty that we cannot deny.  But in the short-term, we should expect more hiccups along the way.