Independent Thoughts

All techies carry blackberries and smart phones, but how many do we actually carry these gadgets on our own. Most of them are usually on company plan. Now there is a new gadget on the market called “Peek” which just performs one function “provide your email access” to most common email services like Hotmail and Google’s gmail.

The product and service is launched by a company called Peek. I had an oppurtunity to test this device while its making entry into the retail stores all over USA. This device provides access to your email over the phone network and can be used anywhere the phone network exists. Currently its over T-Mobile USA’s network.

Peek works over the cellular network but it’s not a phone or voice device. It targetted only to perform one task, provide access to the email.

Peek throws its low cost affordabilty as a pitch to sell at just $20.00 per month as a service fee without any contracts and stands in competition against smart phones and other highend phone gadgets.

From design’s perspective it looks like a blackberry having a small 2.5 inch color screen and a the mini keyboard. “Peek” comes in three colors. Back of the Peek is made of aluminum, and it’s made sturdy by an interior metal frame and front surface with color display and a tiny backlit keyboard. Its also rubberized, so it makes for easy typing for someone with long fingernails.

The gadget may attract to women in their 30s and 40s who need to manage their online lives on the go, and to men who are not gadget geeks but may need to stay current on their emails.

One limitation of the device is that you can only setup 3 emails only at a time. Peek also does not supports emails with webpages and only supports image attachments which are JPEG only. Although the company plans to add more functionality in future.

At the end i would say its a sleek concept but not sure if it will really catch up, to me it seem launching a pager while everyone else is moving onto phones.