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Email… bankruptcy?

There has been an interesting little trendlet in the last year or so among tech geeks that we have been watching with amusement. Too much email!

Well, that’s not the trend. Since the first buzz wore off upon getting your first Hotmail account or AOL account back in the 1990s, you probably had too much email. One too many forwarded jokes or free offers…

The trend is “email bankruptcy”. Some high tech types have been “switching off” and just deleting all their emails or telling people to stop emailing them altogether. Here is a good run down of some of these people.

Kind of an extreme option.

Email is so handy and convenient that we at Peek can’t imagine going that far.

Sure, you need to stay on top of your emails to be organized. Going away for a long weekend…being away from home driving Mom’s Taxi all day…or just not bothering to go switch on that fussy Windows PC in the basement… all good ways to get yourself a big full inbox with tons of stuff to wade through. Scary.

But we love keeping in touch with family, seeing pictures of babies and trips, planning out gatherings, etc etc etc and email is the way we do it.

So, what to do about that overload issue? Run to an Internet cafe when you are on a trip? Interrupt dinner to go watch your computer boot up? Nope.

We think we have a better idea! And it’s coming soon to a store near you.

Update

A friend from AOL read this post and sent us this great link about research they did — http://www.crazyforemail.com

It’s full of tidbits about the way people use email. But the bottom line is they use it a lot!

The biggest one is that 46% of the people they surveyed say they are “hooked on email”.

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4 Comments

1. E-mail is here to stay; it is probably going to continue to grow as the most pervasive business communication tool…

   That being said, declaring e-mail bankruptcy isn’t the way to deal with e-mail overload — you are right. Declaring e-mail bankruptcy essentially puts the onus on others to mop up after you, just because you weren’t able to manage your work.

   That AOL study was pretty enlightening regarding how many people feel that they are hooked on it. The irony is that as it grows in being the most prolific method of commerce, it shouldn’t surprise us that we find e-mail taking up more time in our days.

   But when it gets in the way of the rest of our lives, then it becomes a problem. That’s where it turns from bad habit into addiction. And, like just about every addiction, the addicted person may not realize it — it’s important to tune in to what the others around you are saying about you and your e-mail!

   Comment by Marsha Egan — August 14, 2008 @ 9:10 am

2. The concept is intriguing without a doubt. The price point may be high for a truly mass penatration. I would think sales would really soar on $9.95-$12.95/month plan. Can people use existing e-mail or will they need to get a T-mobile address? The design looks very sleek and easy to use. Text messaging is extremely popular. A test message option would be really smart. I thought that people were getting the I-phone so that they could dump three devices for one. I guess I was wrong. Good luck, I’ll look for the device at Target.

   Comment by gaspare — August 20, 2008 @ 12:04 pm

3. I just read about Peek this morning. I think it is a great idea. You are totally right that the convergence of mobile devices is a long way into the future.

   The idea to have optimized devices is wonderful. I myself do like to get the best results when I do carry stuff around. So it has to be a good point and shoot camera, a good mp3 player and why not a good and slim little e-mail device?

   Comment by Steven — August 21, 2008 @ 12:49 am

4. Marsha – very well put. I spent some time on your blog (and plan on posting a few comments…) and you’re quite the expert on this subject. Thanks for checking us out!

   gaspare – Peek allows you to check your existing email, supporting Yahoo!, AOL, Hotmail / Live, GMail, and dozens of other personal email providers. Appreciate the ideas on pricing, texting and the design – definitely look for us at Target in September.

   Steven – couldn’t agree more!

   - Jeremy
   Peek Marketing

   Comment by jeremy — August 21, 2008 @ 5:00 pm

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