UPDATE: Here’s a photo from PCMag.com now too. There’s not much discernable detail for the Sidekick, though the screen does look relatively big compared to previous versions. It almost looks like a slide-up screen, too, instead of the flip-around style made famous by the earlier models.
UPDATE 2: Well there’s a curve ball. The phone will run Android. How about that? I got this statement from T-Mobile’s PR rep:
“I saw your post on Techland regarding the new T-Mobile Sidekick and I wanted to confirm that it’s true, we will launch a new 4G T-Mobile Sidekick available in 2011 running on the Android operating system. The article speculates on the operating system and I just wanted to point out that T-Mobile did confirm the new Sidekick will run on Android.”
So either the “Sidekick” name is solely owned by T-Mobile or it’s being spun off from Danger/Microsoft (Motorola and Sharp have both developed past Sidekick phones in partnership with Danger). That, or Microsoft’s branching out to Android, which seems least likely.
Following up with the PR rep, I got this:
“It is T-Mobile’s belief that moving Sidekick to Android will allow for more rapid innovation, delivery of 4G experiences, and higher customer satisfaction. Android continues to provide a rich platform for innovation – allowing us to build compelling services and applications across our device lineup. T-Mobile will continue to provide the best customer service for our loyal T-Mobile customers. We have no further information to share at this time but will be in touch when we do.”
So it looks like the “Sidekick” name is T-Mobile’s.
I asked which company would manufacture the handset, which resulted in the “we have no further information” quip but it appears that the device will more or less be an Android phone donning the Sidekick name. The “moving the Sidekick to Android” part seems to indicate that Danger and Microsoft won’t have anything to do with this one.
More on TIME.com:
Is T-Mobile’s Mystery HSPA+ Smartphone a New Sidekick?
T-Mobile’s First Windows Phone 7 Phone Comes With a Kickstand