Twelve Black Code Monkeys

There’s been a bit more info regarding the Color Sidekick’s debut. The dust is beginning to settle and here’s what things are looking like:

On Friday the CSK as people are calling it was made available at some CompUSA’s and through Tmobile. The price: $300 for new customers who are also getting activation for a new Tmobile account. With no activation, CompUSA’s price seems to be about $480, but some have reported that they have been restricted from selling it unless the customer is also signing up for a new Tmobile account.

Current Tmobile customers: normally, Tmobile (as other carriers) has two basic prices for their phones. They have a price with new activation an a higher price with no such activation, which usually equates with the retail price of the phone. Because their emphasis is on gaining new customers, their current customers who wish to purchase a new phone kind of get the shaft. Tmobile uses the list price of the phone as a base, then they give a discout off this usually pretty hefty pricetag based on how long a person has subscribed to their service, the cost of their subscription plan, whether they’ve been timely with their bill, etc. But the discount rarely gets as low as the price at which they offer the phone to new customers (or at least the price that can be had if one looks at other sources for the phone which have additional rebates - like Amazon.com or CompUSA). For the Sidekick it seems to be a bit different. They are starting at the price they are offering the phone to new users at ($300), and discounting from that point. However, so far the largest discount I have heard any current customer getting is about $80. That seems to be a ceiling no matter how long a person has been with Tmobile.

So, while this “upgrade plan” is pretty good compared to other ones from Tmobile, it still means parting with a pretty penny in order to get something which differs from its predecessor mainly by its screen. Potentially there are other improvements such as reception and build quality, but it is too early to tell about these. I’m still waiting. I think the jury’s still out - hell, it just came out! - and until there’s solid feeback and not just the initial impression and wow factor from the new screen, it’s just too risky. Many of us have had so many problems with the black and white unit, it just doesn’t make any sense to upgrade - unless of course one can get it for cheap (or can afford to plop down $220+ on a lark), which it seems ain’t going to happen, at least not any time real soon…