Click to View

T-Mobile today introduced the Sidekick iD, an entry level edition of its popular 'BlackBerry' for the young and hip. While the new Sidekick takes the same form factor as the $200 Sidekick 3, it loses some features and about $100 off its price tag.

The pared down Sidekick iD shake offs the Sidekick 3's camera and 2.5G EDGE cellular-wireless networking for its $99 price tag. T-Mobile plans to roll out the Sidekick iD on April 25th.

With the Sidekick iD, T-Mobile is placing a heavy emphasis on personalization through a customizable exterior that allows users to change the device's look (see images).

“The T-Mobile Sidekick has always been about freedom of expression and communicating with style,” said T-Mobile spokesperson Greg Andrews in a statement. “With the T-Mobile Sidekick iD, we’re expanding on the theme of individuality by increasing the personalization aspect and providing pricing that is accessible to a wide range of consumers.”

As with earlier models, the Sidekick iD sports Danger's (the company that develops the device) signature swivel screen that reveals a QWERTY thumb-keyboard when open.

There's a large color screen and multiple messaging options as with Sidekick 3. These include e-mail, text messaging and instant messaging (AIM, Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger).

The T-Mobile Sidekick iD will have T-Mobile’s myFaves feature, which allows users to customize the device's home screen with images of the five people they call most often. There are a variety of myFaves plans, all of which feature unlimited calling to those designated people. This interface also provides a straightforward communicators menu for calling and messaging.

In our opinion, nixing a shooter and faster cellular-wireless technology isn't going to help the carrier as far as ARPU (average revenue per user) is concerned. Users won't be able to snap a picture and quickly MMS message it to a friend with this device, for instance. However, by extending advanced mobile messaging to a wider swath of customers under 25, the carrier has a chance to gain additional data revenue.