The Sidekick Gets Kicked To The Curb

I come to bury Sidekick, not to praise him.
Less than 24 hours after Microsoft killed Kin dead, T-Mobile has abandoned the granddaddy of messaging phones. Sidekick sales will cease tomorrow, July 2nd, and honestly? No one will care.
The Sidekick LX and Sidekick 2008 will no longer be supported by T-Mobile after tomorrow, while they "work on the next chapter" of the franchise:

As T-Mobile looks to further innovate and raise the bar for the next iteration of the T-Mobile Sidekick, as of July 2, the Sidekick LX and Sidekick 2008 will no longer be available through T-Mobile, including retail stores, care, telesales and online. While we work on the next chapter of our storied Sidekick franchise, T-Mobile will continue to provide our loyal Sidekick customers with product service and support. Stay tuned for exciting updates in the months ahead, which we expect will provide customers with a new and fresh experience.

Which is a polite way of saying that in this world of hyper-capable smartphones, there's really no place for a device that costs as much and can't do nearly enough.
It's not like no one saw this coming, either; reports of Sidekick's imminent demise go all the way back to January.
Will Sidekick come back ever? Sure, probably. It's still a strong brand even if the products are obsolete. But when it does return, you'd better believe it'll have a real OS behind it. [Boy Genius Report]