The Sidekick 4G was the last incarnation of T-Mobile’s long-running Sidekick series, which debuted a decade ago, in what can be described as the ancient times of the smartphone world. Made famous by rap stars and pop icons, the original Sidekick offered downloadable apps, email, and instant messaging, all based on a cloud infrastructure that was way ahead of its times.

Then Danger, the makers of the Sidekick (or the Hiptop, as the original branding went) got bought by Microsoft, which meant the end of the Sidekick in its original form. But T-Mobile didn’t give up on the branding and commissioned Samsung to create the Sidekick 4G, a re-imagined version of the phone running Android and sporting the same iconic pop-up screen that made the OG Sidekick so recognizable.

The Sidekick 4G was launched in early 2011, and it was actually a pretty good mid-ranger built on the platform of the Samsung Galaxy S. The device was received warmly by users, especially those enamored with the series and those who swear by physical full-QWERTY keyboards.

In March 2012, a year after its launch, T-Mobile announced that the Sidekick 4G will be phased out gradually. Yesterday, Phone Scoop reported that the Sidekick 4G has reached its official End of Life status. The device will no longer be available from T-Mobile, although you might still find it in some stores.

The silver lining for the fans of the series is that T-Mobile plans to keep the brand alive in some form or another. Will we see a Sidekick 2013? Perhaps, although T-Mo has another QWERTY device coming sooner, the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze Q. Anyway, all hope is not lost for Sidekick fans, and that’s what’s important.