Peek To Launch Its Email Device In India Soon

[savramesh 37]

Source

Bangalore: In an era of multi-tasking mobile phones, US-headquartered Peek Inc. intends to soon launch in India a hand-held device that would only access email.

The eponymously dubbed Peek is being currently test marketed and would be commercially launched in a few weeks, Peek India chief executive Siddarth Mangharam said.

The instrument would cost Rs 3,999 and monthly rental for the email service would be pegged at Rs 299. It would initially be available only on Aircel Ltd’s service but would later include other cellular operators too, Mangharam said.

There are some who aren’t sure whether Peek would have many takers.

“Indian consumers typically want as many features as possible in the same device,” said Vivek Shenoy, an analyst at market research firm Valuenotes Database Pvt. Ltd. “So when an aspiring user can opt for a smartphone for about Rs7,000, which does so much more than just emails, I’m not sure how compelling will be the new gadget that only does email.” The so-called smartphones enable users to access short messaging service and email, besides plain vanilla voice calls. They also sport cameras, music players, FM radios, games and a variety of other applications.

These phones, including Research In Motion Ltd’s BlackBerry, Nokia Oyj’s E-Series phones and Apple Inc.’s iPhone, are becoming increasingly popular across the world and in India due to their versatility.

A BlackBerry can be bought in India for about Rs16,000 and its email service costs about Rs300 a month.

Some experts are, however, unwilling to dismiss Peek’s chances. “India with its 542 million mobile subscriber base will always have a market for all kinds of gadgets,” said Harish Bijoor, chief executive officer of brand and business strategy firm Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. “Peek’s appeal is the fact that it does one thing but does it well.”

The instrument sports a Qwerty keyboard, weighs about 100g and has an onboard 16MB memory. It supports POP (Post Office Protocol), IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) and Microsoft Exchange protocols and would sync seamlessly with popular email services such as Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail. It can sync three email addresses at a time. Mangharam said the India operations of Peek will offer customized solutions to enterprise customers. “A sales representative could come out of a meeting and file the status report or update automatically on mail about the customer call.”

He said Peek would be successful in India because a large user base is only now graduating to using email on the go.

“There is a vast market between a basic functional device and the top end BlackBerry market, which will discover the joy of using mobile email,” Mangharam said. “Peek will succeed because of that market.”

Edited February 5, 2010 by savramesh

[Greatest 55]

Its only pro against BB is price.. this is for around 4K and BB.. well u know... I am considering only email... nothing else...

[copperco2 24]

it looks good but then blackberry fills the gap between a good phone and an email device. Ofcourse at this price it will be a good option for the avid emailers...who can have a separate handset for making calls and again can not afford blackberry.

[ACS 130]

Flop.. flop.. Big flop.. who would like to keep a separate voice & mailing device unless forced by the boss ?

Very rarely will someone find a use for it when BB basic phones are available @ 8K.

[Greatest 55]

Whatever it is... but I should say, it is such a sleek device..

[::Hitesh:: 1,763]

^^^

I got the solution for my employees !

why to give them costly BB only for mail service .

this will be a good & perfect option

Edited February 6, 2010 by hitesh123

[dkaile 1,051]

I agree with ACS.... such kind of device may have market in the west but in India it will be a failure... we need voice and mail together here... who will carry 2 devices. I see very rare market for it...

[ACS 130]

^^^

I got the solution for my employees !

why to give them costly BB only for mail service .

this will be a good & perfect option

See there.. case of Boss forcing the employees..

[::Hitesh:: 1,763]

^^^

LOL

Calculate the cost saved by company,

per employee minimum 8 to 10 K,

[::Hitesh:: 1,763]

^^^

while searching for tech specs of this device, i came across review by crunchgear.

As per that site, this device will show only plain text emails, no embedded html mails on embedded jpg, it can show attached jpg files.

this device dose not support IMAP, and dont have Exchange support.

Holding my buy because of not supporting IMAP !

[Sadikk 301]

Corporates will use it..

Imagine.. sales guy get all sales email in it.. saving companies cost to buy separate PC for it..

In electronics everything finds its place...

[Ghost_of_Mukeshlst 0]

Or can use at a place where Boss not allows to make a call or mobile in his campus though they can check their mail.in that case its the substitute of PC or laptop on the move at office campus.

[Harshal 11]

Several BB connections from corporates (corporates are the biggest users of BB) allow only data, voice is not allowed. I have a frnd who works for citi and its true for them AFAIK.

[::Hitesh:: 1,763]

^^^

main thing here is the cost of device.

this is just @ 3999

[ACS 130]

@jyoti vijayvargiya

• I though mukeshst had quit.. are you the same guy re-inventing yourself ?

[::Hitesh:: 1,763]

^^^

Good point !

[savramesh 37]

Aircel "Peek", A Qwerty Email Handset For Rs 2,999

Aircel India has taken a huge gamble by introducing a new device called "Peek" which is a Qwerty device similar to those provided by RIM’s Blackberry.

The device which is targeted at email users, has a Qwerty keyboard and is specifically for emails. Aircel boasts that Peek is the thinnest email device ever created. Peek in itself is not a pricey device, and at Rs. 2,999 it is almost a steal, but would Indian consumers really buy a device just for emails?

Consider this, most of the smartphones available today have email capability along with video, camera, voice and more, so would users buy a device just for the sake of email?

The marketing strategy of Aircel may not be wrong, but they are basically targeting a small niche of users who want dedicated devices to check their email and not the entire package which a smartphone offers. Whether a device with only email capabilities succeeds or not is a feat we will be watching.

Specifications: Aircel Peek is available in the two colors, black and red and comes with a Qwerty keyboard. Users can currently configure only 3 email accounts, which makes no sense to me and will have PUSH email capability.

Battery life is supposedly 2-3 days, but expect it to be much lower if you are a heavy email user. To top it you can only store up-to 5000 email message right now and about 1000 contacts.

Charges: Users will have to pay an initial amount of Rs. 897 for email access for 90 days and then have to shell out a monthly charge of Rs. 299 every month to download their emails.

Verdict: This device will definitely not take off as much as Aircel expects, considering that it restricts users to only 3 email accounts and also has a charge of Rs. 299 per month which is almost equivalent to a GPRS connection price one pays on mobile smartphones. In addition to that, this device is practically useless without a Internet connection and does not even allow you to make phone calls. All in all, my prediction is that, this device will be a big failure.

If you are interested in the Aircel Peek, you can find more information and purchasing details at the Official Aircel site.

[commonman 228]

As per the Aircel official site the cost of the device is 3999. As per the peek site indicated in the aircel site its 2999.

The peek service is only available with Aircel and no other service provider.

It can not create attachment.

When viewing attachment, for word/pdf files no embedded graphics or picture would be shown.

Edited March 16, 2010 by commonman