12. CONVERGED TECHNOLOGY – SIDEKICK 3

A T-Mobile Sidekick is a phone that lets you stay connected “the way you want, when you want”. You can do almost anything on a sidekick, and the development into a sidekick 3 with added features means it is beginning to replace conventional mobile phones, as well as MP3 players, as due to the large memory capacity people may feel that they don’t need both an MP3 player and a phone, when they can just have the sidekick. This is also similar with a camera, as although the picture quality is lower than most digital cameras, it is more convenient, as you have it built into your phone, which you take almost everywhere you go. The technology involved is a phone.

The main target audience for the Sidekick is girls aged 14-24 as it means that can constantly keep in touch with their friends. The fact that celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Lauren Conrad (from Laguna Beach) also have one influences their opinion on the phone, as they want to be similar to them. Recently, however T-mobile have tried to make the Sidekick appeal to boys as well as girls by creating a D-wade Sidekick, designed by an NBA player.

The sidekick is quite a big phone, however this is mainly because it has a keypad on it, allowing for the audience to easily type email messages and AIM messages. The phone has a 1.3MP camera, internet access with instant messenger, email, phone and Bluetooth, and a music player, as well as an extra 1GB memory capacity through the use of a memory card.

However, these different groups may use it differently. Boys may be more interested in keeping up with the latest sports news, whereas girls like to constantly keep in touch with their friends. However, both groups probably find that all the features are relevant to them in some detail.

From an institutional point of view T-Mobile want to produce this phone to keep up with technology and also to keep the teenage audience, which is especially helped by the fact that Paris Hilton has her very own sidekick. The way the phone is exhibited is essential to the audience. The website ties in with the teenage age group, as it is set on a street, which you navigate around using your own sidekick. You can also choose the music that plays, mimicking one of the main features of the sidekick. It is also important for t-mobile, as it is a product, which no other company really has. It is a PDA style device, but with features that are aimed at teenagers, which puts them in a strong position within the market.

The sidekick is a good example of portability, as it allows you to consume media on the go, for example instant messaging due to the built in AIM and MSN capability, the sidekick 3 is also an example of miniaturisation, as even though the phone is slightly bigger than others on the market, it is much smaller than the previous models, the phone also allows for personalisation as the audience can adapt the technology to suit their lifestyle, for example by uploading on to it their favourite songs. Quality is increasing, which we can see from the 1.3MP camera, and we can also see convergence, due to all the different technologies that can now be consumed through the sidekick.