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From Peek’s inbox

What a week for us here at Peek. All the big tech blogs caught wind of our upcoming little product, and boy did a lot of people notice! We got lots of love notes, orders, and general “hey, thanks for making something that flies in the face of the gadget conventional wisdom that more is better”-type messages and comments. Thanks!

Here is what various people said to us as they first heard about Peek:

I … am fairly interested in the Peek. Most of my job consists of answering emails for software support and company PR; it’s nothing too high profile and definitely doesn’t warrant use of a whole computer. I’d also like business to be separate from normal life stuff just to keep things organized and having a dedicated little thing that I take everywhere with me sounds pretty helpful. Basically all I want is email.

Why am I excited about your product? I this is a big O’ goofy world and I have plenty of room in my bag for your product. Best of Luck looking forward to my PEEK.

Thanks - I really appreciate it. I think your product is a great idea - I have an iPhone and have had several Blackberries, but my favorite is still the 950, which you mentioned. Just recently I was trying to determine if anyone still operated the old Mobitex network - I believe it was purchased, but couldn’t really get much info. The bottom line is that with all of the full-featured devices flooding the market, a simple device that just does one thing well may be the answer - good luck with it!

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 would love a ‘peek’ at this new product. I am frustrated by [other phones] and am trying to find the ideal, affordable email device. Please send me a sample if possible! I just graduated from Harvard Business School and will promote the gadget to my colleagues who are all in the market for a smartphone/email device as well. Thanks!!

Hear the music jingle in the background, and a voice comes on - only to say, “please wait while our customer representatives will be with you shortly”. Oh gosh. Even the best carrier I’ve experienced needed at least 1 telephone call / check-up in person.
And why do so handsets still have so many bugs, lags, crashes… etc. in their software, even after rigorous testing? Bottom line, things need to just work - properly and seamlessly.

Time is crucial, I don’t want to spend too much time fiddling the new handset just to get it to work.

Being “chained” to a carrier for years - no thanks. Having experienced [a] 3-year contract, any contract is hard to swallow. I hate how everywhere, people fail to realise the initial attraction of lower initial purchase price, is what makes them pay more to the cell phone carriers in the long run. There is always a better monthly plan with more offerings after couple of months. That’s how carriers attract more customers or switch from competitors. Carriers never “lose” money when selling a handset for a hundred bucks less. They can easily recuperate it within the couple of months - that’s right, from your month bills. … Signing at the bottom of any agreement is like signing your soul away.

I can easily think of scenarios like this - hiking trip, going out at night.
I don’t mind carrying [my smartphone] because it’s cool looking, thin and well designed … Only thing is it’s kinda heavy and I would get in great trouble if I lose it (confidential information from work, personal e-mails). So I worry a little bit. Sometimes, I do appreciate just having a separate simple phone (like the Razr) for that kind of day/event.

Just think, when you’re out at night and a girl gives you her digits. She offers to punch it in for you and holds on to your QWERT BlackBerry Curve, Samsung Blackjack… etc. And then, “wow, where are the numbers”, or “where do I type”… Awkward. Thick, wide, QWERTY keyboard all over the front - not sexy at all. Yes, a simple phone like the Razr would have helped in that case.

And good luck with the device… I think the concept is great! I don’t think people need to buy their email device from the same place as their phone. You’ve got the right product at the right time.
I just wanted to say that I really like your idea and will probably buy one when it comes out. I am sick and tired of Blackberries and 2-year contracts. Make sure it looks great, it is slim, and handles e-mail really well (like several different accounts in one device) and I am onboard. I think you are on to something and wanted to send a positive message. I wish you lots of success…

Posted by amol on Aug 22, 2008 -

8 Comments

I agree with the premise that there is such a thing as too many features. Phones are often unnecessarily complicated.

It may not be your intended audience here, but there is a market for sysadmins who dont like talking on the phone and would prefer to communicate via email. That said, they need to be able to log in and troubleshoot issues as well, and they would prefer not to have to pull out the laptop for it, which means an SSH client. Many have turned to blackberries or the iPhone for this, but the keyboards are always sub par.
This device seems to have REAL potential as a portable SSH and email client, as they keyboard looks fantastic.

I know, its another feature, but if you aren’t interested in providing that, why not push out a dev kit so others could do it? Even if unsupported by the companies I think sysadmins would eat this device up. I brought this up with Helio regarding SSH on the Ocean and they basically blew me off; look how that company turned out :/

Comment by Chris Allegretta — August 23, 2008 @ 1:40 pm
Chris - very, very interesting idea on the SSH client. We’re keeping a list here at Peek for future product enhancements and I’ve added your idea to it. Thanks for checking us out!

- Jeremy
Peek Marketing

Comment by jeremy — August 25, 2008 @ 9:27 pm
Any plans to roll this out in Australia?

Comment by CL — August 27, 2008 @ 2:02 am
Hi Jeremy,

Rather than building something like an SSH client into the device, why not put a J2ME runtime on the device so that multiple different types of programs can be run? There are open-source VMs out there that I’m sure could be adapted, and it would make it much easier to add many different types of applications.

Of course, if J2ME isn’t up your alley, Adobe has done some very interesting work with getting arbitrary C applications to run on the Flash VM via LLVM. You could use a similar approach to build a lightweight VM and allow almost any application to be ported and run at near-native speed while retaining the security and stability advantages of a virtual machine. (Think of it as the iPhone SDK without the application stability problems and lengthly developer “approval” process.) If this idea interests you and you’d like to discuss further, feel free to shoot me an email.

On another note - I was commenter #5 on the survey contest on Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5039699/peek-handheld-no-phone-no-frills-just-email#c7383321 . I see one of the comments from my email above, but I never got a reply…

- Brian Mastenbrook

Comment by Brian Mastenbrook — August 27, 2008 @ 5:50 am
Against-the-grain ideas are gold dust, even if implementation is where battles are really won. I think the internet might go knock-kneed if you offered an SDK: the device’s hardware limitations will be liberating, not constraining.

Comment by Rob Beschizza — August 27, 2008 @ 10:30 am
Can’t wait to get my Peek unit.

It makes all the sense in the world…………..

Comment by Marvin — August 27, 2008 @ 5:09 pm
Rob & Marvin -

Appreciate the support - hope you pick a Peek up on September 15th when they go on sale at Target and http://www.getpeek.com!

- Jeremy
Peek Marketing

Comment by jeremy — September 2, 2008 @ 11:54 am
I plan on using my Peek to replace about 80% of my phone usage. Most wireless providers are able to deliver email to their customer’s phones as SMS. And wireless customers, such as my wife on Verizon, can reply to an emailed SMS message and… alas, it returns to the sender’s email client! I feel that if this information were publicized on your site, it would provide a very compelling incentive. People will say:

“You mean I can send an email to a cell phone! And get a reply! Awesome!!”

Regards, Spike

Comment by Spike — September 8, 2008 @ 1:28 pm