Peek Inc. Reflection

Peek Inc. was a mobile technology company founded in 2007 whose original purpose was to perfect mobile email. Their Idea was to create a simple mobile device that had the capability of push email, IM and chat, social networking apps. Famously excluding capabilities such as telephone, cameras, and a friendly user interface; coupled with their inability to innovate ultimately led to their demise. But in 2008, when their first product was released, Time and wired selected it as one of their top gadgets of the year. The latter saying:

“Not every gadget needs a carnival of features. Take the Peek, which tackles just a single task: mobile email. No phone, no browser, no camera — and no apologies. It won’t satisfy convergence-rabid smartphone fetishists, but for the rest of the world (i.e., the majority of it), this one-trick pony is a godsend.”

Noting the above statement we can see the assumptions Peek tried to play off of that would eventually lead to their downfall. Assuming that customers did not want a device that had all the capabilities of a smart phone undermines what we know now. People are lazy and they want products that make their lives easier. So while in its introduction the technology felt like the way of the future (easy mobile email) it failed to recognize its pitfalls and adjust accordingly. Not only did it fail to adapt to the changing smartphone landscape but it’s user interface was difficult to maneuver and emails only gave 20 character previews. Instead of focusing on the user’s needs they invested more money into cloud computing. On February 1, 2012 Peek officially discontinued their mobile platform thus concluding their failed experiment.