One the way home tonight I stopped into the T-Mobile Store maul at Columbia, Maryland to take a look at the Sidekick II. They just got their shipment in today. I only played with the non-functional demo, which sported a cool removable screen! The device felt OK to hold and I agree with what everyone has said about having to get used to the deeply recessed and rubbery keyboard.

The salesperson said that no rebates have been announced yet and that the Sidekick II would cost me $385. He suggested that I try the online upgrade program which made me smirk. I'm waiting a while rather than throw myself into the T-Mobile vortex of confusion.

On balance, it seems that the call-in upgrade program--now web form with call back--has created more ill will than anything. It was a debacle of weak fullfillment process giving in to the crush of thousands of over-eager Sidekick geeks*--some of whom called hundreds of times. I gave myself one hour during the first offer and will wait some more because the second offer with three try call back confirmation doesn't work for me as I don't get a signal at my office and am frequently sitting in meetings away from my desk.

The whole phone order process begins to look medieval if you think a little about the on board Catalog or "Download Fun" capability. Wouldn't it be cool if you could just upgrade your phone on the go by simply entering your account password and accepting agreement terms right on the Sidekick? The Catalog could first present some marketing pages about the new phone product or even play a short audio clip of Zeta-Jones. The upgrade screen flow would guide you through any account details requiring decisions and perhaps upsell you on accessories. The final click OK would start the fullfillment process to have the unit shipped out, or even more cleverly, might direct you to the store of your choice for product pickup.

We're probably not going to live this fantasy anytime soon because Danger, T-Mobile and DHL would have to implement sophisticated web services behind the scenes. But these companies, and the industry as a whole, can ill afford not to work towards a world of intergrated systems because human-powered call centers can not be scaled up to support a future where most people have cell phones and upgrade them frequently.

- mike lee - *sidekick geek in baltimore, md