Danger for Microsoft

11/02/2008

Danger, Inc. was a company specializing in hardware design, software, and services for mobile computing devices. Its most notable product was the T-Mobile Sidekick (Danger Hiptop), which was the first smartphone to capture the attention of pop culture celebrities and teenagers. The device was the pioneer in cloud-based smartphones, and was one of the first to create a mobile app marketplace.

Danger that was originally founded by former Apple, WebTV and Philips employees, was acquired by Microsoft for $500 million.

After the acquisition, the company's staff was taken to the Mobile Communications Business (MCB) of the Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division, where they worked on "Project Pink", a future mobile phone platform, which would be released as Kin. Because of it didn't sell good, the team was transferred to the Windows Phone team, and Microsoft stopped promoting the device.

The Danger acquisition was considered as a failure for Microsoft because the company couldn't integrate either the technology of the people from Danger.

Danger was founded by Andy Rubin, Joe Britt, and Matt Hershenson. Rubin left to create Android, which was later acquired by Google.