An American Lion

Peek Pronto

I like the idea of having an E-mail only device. I know that runs counter to the common perception that we will all have one “tablet” device that will be our phone, our Internet portal, our business portal, our reader, our everything. That’s fine for you, but if I’m running a business, I don’t necessarily want to have to foot that bill. There’s a device out called the Peek Pronto that does one thing—it gives you E-mail.

I’m sure there’s a flaw in my thinking here, but I can’t really figure out where it is:

Smart phones are getting cheaper and cheaper, with some BlackBerry models available for as little as $30. The monthly bill is another story — it can be $60 or more for many devices with voice, email and Internet options.

That’s a lot to swallow for a recession-strapped consumer. Enter Peek, a start-up that caters to the user who needs email to stay in touch but doesn’t want to spend an arm and a leg on devices or data plans.

Peek offers its customers unlimited email and text messaging from its devices for as low as $15 a month, or $20 with no contract.

I decided to test the company’s main offering, the Pronto, a handheld mobile email device that costs just $50 when ordered online from Amazon. The company also just launched the Twitter Peek, at $20, which is the first wireless device on the market geared specifically toward Twitter.

Aesthetically, the Pronto is, quite frankly, adorable. It’s about the size of a BlackBerry and comes in red, turquoise or gray. When you turn it on, a graphic featuring the letter “P,” with an envelope attached to it, greets you. The Pronto guides you through the process of entering your email address and password so that you’re set up to begin writing and receiving messages and importing contacts from your address book.

With this device you could cut business costs.

Say you have a business where you have dozens of people who you don’t necessarily need to give BlackBerry services or traditional company cell phones but you have no real choice because they need some form of communication with your main office or with a supervisor. What do you do? You give them this device. You give your lower level managers and supervisors the traditional data package, but the drones get these devices.

Several hundred BlackBerrys or twenty BlackBerrys and 180 of these devices. Yes, I think I’ll take those numbers any day.