Peek manages to survive a whole year, promises more features for year two
By Darren Murph 
posted Sep 22nd 2009 11:12PM
posted Sep 22nd 2009 11:12PM
Read - First Peek birthday
Read - Tales of survival
Please note: If you're a current Engadget commenter, you do not need to re-register. Simply login and you will be prompted to select a username.
Grats!
Yay! I actually want a Peek, I guess its worth getting now, since they've managed to hold their own for a year.
I've never been able to think of a reason why someone would purchase a Peek device except for their old granny. So on that note, congrats.
I thought of one. My not so old son.
It's actually a fantastic add-on for anyone still carrying around a basic cell phone. You know, like the kind they give away for free on contract.
You can also pair it with Google Voice and get totally free text messaging without using any crazy email gateways. Then you've got email server apps where you can send requests for weather reports, movie showtimes, directions to places, Twitter feeds, text-only website views, or a Google Maps snapshot of your current location and have it emailed back to you in about a minute.
Sure, it's no smartphone, but it certainly gives you a lot of nice functionality for $15 a month with no contract.
Actually if they still had the "one time price" I would have gotten one. Plus they may make it till next year. I agree it may not be the best solution. But the initial offer has pretty tempting and worth the weak service.
Can you hear me now..........hint
Bring back the lifetime offer... oh and Happy Birthday
Exactly. The one time price is what made it convenient. All the texting and email you could handle until the device breaks.
peek. I feel bad for them Their company is DOOMED and they don't realize it. sad.
Completely missing the point of the article? People like you said they were doomed 12 months ago, and guess what - they are still here.
The tech world is unforgiving - if they were doomed, they would have closed up shop 11 months ago.
Pretty sure no one reading Engadget falls within their target market, but if they added even really basic phone capabilities to this I could see it competing well with feature phones for non-tech-savvy users. I'd probably even recommend it to people.
Lies, OQO survived for years before going under and they were in a similar situation with a cool products that were cool but seemed purposeless. Though Peek survived worse times thus far.
@Dpmt OQO's device wasn't pointless. It was a pocketable computer. They failed because their product was very expensive and prone to failure backed by poor support and part supply.
I LOVE my Peek! Congrats! PLEASE implement those ideas from the customer survey!!
Good for them!
I'm still waiting for them to offer the lifetime service + Device for $300.... I'd pick one up for that to keep for when my iphone breaks!
down with convergence! embrace purpose-built-ness!
YO PEAK I'M REALLY HAPPY FOR YOU AND IMA LET YOU FINISH. BUT RIM'S GOT ONE OF THE BEST EMAIL DEVICES OF ALL TIME! OF. ALL. TIME!!!!
I laughed reading this.. haha
To quote the President of the United States: "That's not true".
I really wish I could justify the purchase of a Peek. I had one, returned it though, and now I just can't do it. At 10 dollars a month it is really a great deal, or 20 with some form of a very very light web browser (text only would be just fine for me). Maybe one day with a different iteration.
It's odd that its survived, mostly since the peek is on clearance at most target stores. Mine in particular has never sold one...
More features? Wasnt the whole point was that is was simple and did only email?
Well, the biggest features that have been added since the device launched are Push email for Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail, and the ability to text message people. I don't think that really takes away from the simplicity of the device or their stated goal of doing one thing well. They're just doing it a little better now.
Now if they'd just get proper IMAP support, we'd be in business.
Well, if you only want texting and e-mail, it's actually a pretty excellent device.
Just ordered a 'peek pronto' for $0.00 after using 'the promo code' and paid $19.95 for 1st month's service. 2nd best deal one can get after the lifetime free service. If I like the service, it'll make a lot of sense to cancel the stupid unlimited text service on my current plan and enjoy a lot more features for the same price with 'peek'!
CAN'T WAIT!
Would this device have coverage on a cruise ship? I'm about to work on a ship for 8 months. I will be going from Miami to Columbia, Russia, and England.... Any help/ideas???
Well, it runs on T-Mobile USA's GSM network -- not sure how it'd act at sea, but unless you've got a GSM tower near, I'm guessing not awesomely.
Short Answer: No.
Long Answer: Hell no.
the peek pronto is selling at my local target for 7.99 on clearance, there's a huge stack of them. with this pricing i dont expect them to stay around much longer.
I'm pretty sure they never made much of a profit on the device itself, they sell them for a loss and make it back by convincing you to keep your service active. If anything it's a show of confidence on their part, since there's no contract to sign you can technically just buy it up and cancel service after one month and they'd be out a bunch of money, but they're convinced that they can get most people to keep their service going long enough to make back their money on the device.
I don't want to pay the contract/connect fee for a smart phone. This seems like a decent little product. With a terminal program it would be a good way to cheaply keep tabs on my server.
I've hacked mine into a speak'n'spell!
As a Peek owner, I'm intrigued. How'd you manage it?
just kidding, but I do have one!
Lifetime service is coming back. For $299. You can also get a pronto at their online store for $1 using promo code "BIRTHDAY".
http://boards.getpeek.com/discussion/1353/lifetime-service/#Item_7
All Peeks purchased at TARGET ONLY now will have a $30 Activation Fee.
The reason that we have implemented this change is because the cost to support the device has increased.
We have NO plans to increase the monthly rate, quarterly or yearly rates. If you are an existing customer and were not previously charged the activation fee to activate a device from Target, we will of course not charge you. We highly value our existing customers and do not want to impose changes upon them that were not in place when they initially signed up for service with us.
Just some food for thought....Every pre-paid and post-paid carrier currently charges a $35 activation fee, so we're not doing anything unusual or over the top.
http://boards.getpeek.com/discussion/1347/30-activation-fee/#Item_0
I bought one for my mother-in-law who will never "get" smart phones. She took to this immediately. She LOVES it. In her mind, a phone is a phone, and an email device is an email device, and she does not want the two to merge.
I had one.. it was constantly slow on delivering my email to me and more often than not, I would gather my email on my main machine, or from the web before my device ever told me I had any. Then I had issues deleting large amounts of mail, etc.. I thought it was a cool little idea, but soon realized after getting it that I didn't ever really use it as intended... so.. it just sits in a drawer now. Had to purchase an upgrade cable to update the thing because it wasn't working properly for me anyway... I don't intend on purchasing another..
There is a market for them, however, if they get native Exchange support for mid-large business that have users on large campuses or in big buildings that need constant email access, but don't need cell phones.
I have had a Peek for about a year. I have a bottom of the line phone, a Motorola V-195.
The Peek is wonderful as an email / SMS only device. Email is fast I can send messages to cell phones, the keyboard is solid and tactile, and I do not need all the other internet access and features that are offered on smart phones. Also, it only costs me $15 a month. For me and what I need, the Peek is a great device.
Great more ways to get email. Just what I need. If someone needs their email on the go, that's what a Blackberry or iPhone is for. This is just a dumb idea, especially considering it is on T-Mobile's crappy network. I usually like no-contract mobile wireless devices for sticking it to the man (well sort of, since they still lease the man's network to work), but this is just dumb and pointless.
You are knocking it without having tried it. I have used the Blackberry. It is too expensive both in initial price and in monthly price and it has crappy applications that I never used. The iphone has a terrible keyboard, imho, and its service plan is more explensive that I would like to pay.
Peek is perfect for someone who really just wants to have convenient email on the go.
Actually I have used the Peek service for around 6 months, it doesn't work at night, barely works on weekends. Then the service stop working totally even after buying a new peek and having it upgrade, no service for 3 weeks.
I bought a boostberry (blackberry 7520) and boost mobile sim card on ebay and put opera mini on the phone. Cost me less then $20 for phone and card. I can go on the web all day, including my emails for .35 cents per day. So that's less then $11.00 dollars a month to surf any website I want from my phone.
Ex-peek customer email hacked? Wonder how that happened?
My wife and I got a couple... when will you get this service to places like India? Our parents hate the computer and love the simple cellphone --- I think that entire generation would immediately take to this!