A bare-bones BlackBerry knockoff
By Michal Lev-Ram
As cameras, MP3 players and text messaging become must-haves on cell phones, one startup is bucking the trend by going back to the basics.
Peek, a New York-based company, will soon launch a mobile device that has only one function – e-mail. In other words, the bare-bones gadget doesn’t take pictures, come with flashy graphics or even make calls. Given that you’ll still have to carry a cell phone, who would want to buy it? The so-called “soccer mom” demographic, says Amol Sarva, Peek’s founder and a former Virgin Mobile (VM) executive.
Sarva believe that middle-aged women with kids want to be able to access their e-mail while out and about, but don’t necessarily want all of the other fancy features packed into most smartphones. That’s why the device his company developed doesn’t do anything but e-mail. That’s also why it has soft, rubber keys specially designed for women’s fingernails. (Whether potential buyers will be attracted or turned off by such gender targeting is another matter.)
“The overwhelming temptation is always to add value by adding more features and functions into a device,” says Michael Gartenberg, VP of mobile strategy at research firm Jupiter Media. “But this philosophy of ‘less is more’ could be the correct approach for a more mainstream demographic.”
An estimated 14% of cell phone users access e-mail on their mobile device, according to research firm ComScore M:Metrics. But most of them are corporate employees who already have BlackBerries or other smartphones. Peek is hoping to attract a less tech-savvy crowd – the kind of people who don’t know their IMAP (a way of transferring e-mail from a server to a device) from their POP (another way to do the same thing).
Of course, to reach a more mainstream demographic, the price has to be right. The Peek (which comes in cherry, aqua and grey) will cost $100, with a flat monthly fee of $20. Sarva says the device runs on T-Mobile’s nationwide network, though customers won’t need to deal with the carrier. Even better, they won’t need to sign a contract. Peek will be sold in Target stores nationwide starting in mid-September, and customers will pay for the monthly service by credit card, either online or via the device, directly to Peek.
To start sending and receiving messages on the device, all they’ll need to do is enter their e-mail address and password (you can get up to three accounts on one device, including Gmail, Yahoo mail and AOL).
But will the Peek be a hit? Maybe, though it could be a hard sell for several reasons. Besides the challenge of finding an effective way to get the word out to its non-techie target demographic, Peek could face competition from ever-cheaper smartphones.
Devices like a Motorola’s (MOT) Q or Palm’s (PALM) Centro are now available for under $150, and they do a lot more than send e-mail. But Peek believes its target market doesn’t care about smartphones’ bells and whistles and don’t want to be tied to service contracts.
As far as techies go – I can’t wait to have this product for my team of IT/system engineers so they can be further connected to our critical alerts and systems (separate from their already cluttered iphone/blackberries). We will use this to replace the age-old pagers that they carry around for critical notifications. (yes, we can teach/force people to program their blackberry/iphone or setup a “policy” to alert them that its the systems going down and not their wife asking to buy milk – but nothing like saying – if this thing gets an email, its important – period.) We can also pass this around to different people on different shifts – much harder to do if your personal/business phone line is tied with it.
Good Idea. The plus is if you damage or lose a Peek your replacement cost is only $100 as opposed to a Blackberry @ $400-600. Those low Blackberry and Palm prices are only good when you enter into a new contract. RTFP everyone.
This looks like it may be the simplest mobile email device on the market. I think that’s very appealing. For example, I’ve seen my parents try and fumble around the various functions/applications on a blackberry time and time again. This looks like it has the potential to avoid that. If so, I’ll gladly cough up the $100 and get it for them.
This guy has no clue about cell phone demographicor has properly done his research about his rivals. You can already get basic email services on the phone you already have (even the very basic phones) anywhere between $5-$10. Since it’s using T-mobile’s network you can do it for $6 for online access and email, which can be done with the simplest phones.
Interesting idea. Good (now part of Motorola) produced a handset like this in the past for the B2B market. I believe it ran on the Mobitex network like Palm.net devices and early Blackberry. This new device looks a lot more consumer frindly. It will be all about ease of use, battery life and cost of data plan. Perhaps there is a market for traditional PDA functions plus email for the busy mother.
I hope this is a trend. I have to buy a machine that has options that I never use. Maybe this is too bare bones, but I like the concept of paying for just what you use.
I am a ’soccer mom’…but I would definitely not buy this if it doesnt have phone and text messaging capabilities. Why would I want to carry around one device for phone and one for email? Yes I dont care about the smartphone’s bells and whistles but ability to make phone calls is a pretty basic feature.
I’m the middle-aged women with kids that makes up the target market for this product. I would probably buy it, simply because I don’t want or need all the bells and whistles of the Blackberry, iPhone, etc. I’m not lazy, I’m just too busy with running a business, a household, and the family.
I hope Peek’s investors know that they are going in the wrong direction. Why would anyone want to pay another provider when they can get it for free as part of their current package. I they are to lazy to learn a simple Smartphone, then they will be too lazy to carry 2 or 3 devices, and have 3 bills, and 3 chargers to worry about.
Peek is dead wrong.
They need to make it much cheaper, then it could be a hit (like $50, $12/m plan)
Kids, “soccer moms” may like it because its cheap, easy to use and less disruptive then a cell phone.
This is a disaster waiting to happen! It doesnt make since to buy a limited device, when, for the same or a little more, that same demographic they are targeting can call 911 on a real smart phone if they need to.
Wouldn’t you be able to text to people on this, too? Just by entering their phone numbers into the recipient line?
In a time where most people are trying to consolidate their music, email, schedules onto one machine, this really seems like a step backwards. I used to have my cell phone and pda. Then upgraded to a blackberry to consolidate them. I am sorry but this has BOMB written all over it.
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I think this will be perfect for the kids. Inexpensive. I will be buying one for each of my children.