Would you Peek at an e-mail only handheld for $20 monthly?
The "less is more" approach is somewhat similar to the 90/10 rule that James previously wrote about. Keeping functionality to a limited space but making sure that functionality is used by the vast majority of users makes for a good experience. At least for the vast majority. 
What about a 99/1 rule as in a device offers one and only one function, but it’s one that nearly everyone needs? That’s how I envision Peek, a portable e-mail device that Michael Gartenberg previewed last night when meeting with the company. Interestingly enough, I see that several of the key personnel at Peek are former high-ups from Virgin Mobile USA.
The hardware is expected to cost $99 and comes with a $20 monthly charge to use T-Mobile’s network for data. The WSJ indicates a product launch for the full-keyboard handheld early next year. I’d guess that the device uses EDGE for two reasons: one, T-Mo is still in the process of getting their HSDPA network up, and two: you don’t need a speedy connection for basic e-mail. The Peek device will support AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, POP and IMAP, but as Michael says, "if you know what IMAP is, this probably isn’t the device for you". I’m inclined to agree: most folks who are already mobile-tech savvy won’t poke the Peek, nor will they want yet another device to carry when they likely have one or two devices that are e-mail capable. But for everyday consumers who leave the house with just a feature phone (or less), this could be appealing.
Any takers out there looking for what’s essentially patterned after a first-gen BlackBerry? If the device only does one thing, I gather it will do it well, but we’ll see. I have an inquiry into the team at Peek for more info and a review unit if possible.
This has been tried before more than once. Remember this:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/14729/vtech_leaps_into_wireless_messaging.html
Me neither.
And don’t forget the Ogo which AT&T *used* to sell…
I’m torn. I love the idea but I love just that…the idea. Who is the target market for this? Someone who emails so much would already have some device that would do such a thing and that device would probably double as, you guessed it, their cellular phone.
For $99 I’d pick one up for fun, but ONLY if the data plan was $5 a month. $20 for ‘unlimited’ email data? Wow, I’m sure I’ll be burning through gigabyte’s in hours.
I believe that the target market already carries a cellphone, and almost every one of those can do email. No extra charges.
I used pocketmail for a while. You held the device up to a phone and it transferred text. Sounds very similar.
http://www.pocketmail.com/
pocketmail is $20/ month for the 3 month service plan.
Hmm… I see the target market carrying a feature phone (at best) where the e-mail experience is so bad that the function isn’t currently used. Folks like my parents and my kids come to mind.
I see those folks texting like crazy. They don’t want email, but if they do they can already do it. Might not be best but for the rare time they want to email it will do.
no
I don’t see much of a market for something like this. Parents are not likely to use any mobile device for email and kids don’t use email at all, they text message. Everybody else uses a cellphone or other mobile device like the Nokia n880 which does email quite well.
Mobile email is so 1998
I think I saw a device with a similar goal (and at a similar price point) at CES three or four years ago. Can’t quite remember what it was called (but it obviously wasn’t successful). Gotta dig out my old photos to jog my memory
As for this one, no chance.
If it was gmail, definetly if it supported gtalk
The WSJ article you reference saying the product will launch early next year is from June 2007. We’re well past “early next year.”
True enough. They do appear behind that time-frame, but I suspect we’ll hear more from them soon. I’ve had some communications with the company and have additional info, but I’m not able to share it just yet.
I like the idea.
I don’t want an iPhone – I don’t like hold up a brick to my ear and I don’t need all the extra stuff that comes with it.
I like my phone separate from my email device and I would be willing to purchase this device and pay a monthly fee.
I want to say thank you for going against what everyone else thinks is “conventional”. You’re absolutely right, the geeks won’t think too much of this device, but I can think of a dozen people that would love to have your Peek(r). I mean seriously, what did people think when Apple thought up the iPod device years ago? There were already many music players on the market…but what they did is incredibly simplify the experience…and made it available to the “rest” of the folks…and the rest is history.
Just last night I was talking to a friend who does full time evangelizing work during the day…and has about 400 emails waiting for him every couple of days when he checks his email account. And I thought it would be great to get him an “email only” device that was cheap and had full qwerty. And today I find this device.
I hope this works out for you guys…I just wish the email plan was more like $10.
- Sam De La Garza
I didn’t know about Pockmail, but this thing is way better than that for the same monthly fee
I was going to get a first gen iPhone, hack it and use it with T-Mobile’s $5.99 data plan. I just can’t get used to the touch keyboard on the iPhone. At $100 and with no contract I might give Peek a try.