Before Android, there was the Sidekick

The hook

In October 2002 a small company called Danger released the Hiptop, sold by T-Mobile as the Sidekick. The screen swung around to reveal a full keyboard. It ran AIM, email and a real web browser on a flat monthly data fee. Musicians, athletes and reality-TV stars carried it everywhere.

The Swivel

Push the corner and the screen spun 180 degrees over a QWERTY keyboard. Your contacts and messages lived on Danger's servers, so a lost phone meant a new phone with everything already on it. That was cloud sync before anyone called it that.

Half a turn, then a keyboard.

What was happening

Phones were for calls

Most phones then had a number pad and a small screen. The Sidekick was built for typing: instant messages, email, early social sites. It turned up in music videos, on red carpets and on reality TV, and it made texting all day look like a style, not a chore.

The detail people forgot

Its co-founder started android

Danger was co-founded by Andy Rubin, Matt Hershenson and Joe Britt. Rubin left in 2003 and started Android, which Google bought in 2005. "Android" had been his nickname at Apple since 1989. Microsoft bought Danger in 2008.

Why it matters now

The last Sidekick, the 2011 Sidekick 4G, ran Android. By then the swivel was gone, but the rest had become standard: a phone built for messaging, always online, backed up to a server. Every phone now works the way the Sidekick did.

The swivel died. The idea won.