Sidekick data may be recoverable

Sidekick users lost data lost after a Microsoft computer failure

T-Mobile has said that some of the phone numbers, photographs and other data that its Sidekick customers lost after a Microsoft computer failure might be recoverable.

While Microsoft initially warned that all the data might have been lost forever, T-Mobile said that it is more optimistic that most of its subscribers' data can be recovered.

There are about one million Sidekick users, but not all of them have lost data. Anyone who loses their data will get a $100 (£63) credit from T-Mobile, which must be hoping that the payment will mollify its customers sufficiently for them not to sue.

Microsoft spokeswoman Brandy Bishop said that Microsoft engineers have been "working 24 hours a day" trying to figure out how to restore the data.

However, Apple rumour site Apple Insider has put together an interesting and mostly plausible story claiming that the failure was the result of monumentally dysfunctional Microsoft mismanagement over recent years, possibly capped by a deliberate act of sabotage.

The story claims that the problems built up from a time before Microsoft identified Danger as a viable acquisition target, and that it proceeded to make a series of catastrophic blunders.

According to a deep throat in Microsoft's Pink Project, there was a Pink group that existed prior to the Danger acquisition which was supposed to develop the Zune music player into a Windows Mobile phone.

When Microsoft bought Danger for the Pink Project it suddenly discovered that Danger had unbreakable contractual obligations to T-Mobile's Sidekick, and the outfit's engineers could not be reassigned to developing Microsoft's wished-for iPhone killer.

Microsoft tried to cancel the Sidekick contract but T-Mobile refused, so it was left trying to work out how to get a lot of sophisticated, unfamiliar technology right for a project it had not planned for and did not have adequate technical resources to pursue.

Without competent designers and systems engineers to guide them, some managers in over their heads apparently ran amok for some time, making a number of laughably tragic design decisions.

No matter what happened, this is going to hurt Microsoft. The company is trying to push cloud computing and, even if this crash was not based on its systems software, it has dealt Microsoft's ambitions in this area a body blow. While Microsoft might not mind too much losing the Sidekick business, it cannot be happy at the damage this is sure to inflict on its cloud plans.

T-Mobile's service level agreement with Danger and Microsoft practically guarantees that a nasty lawsuit will ensue, regardless of whatever any investigation might eventually turn up.