I just caught wind of the Peek Small Business Pack here at CrunchGear. The Peek is a wireless internet device – that’s it. No voice, no IM, no web browsing, just internet. It’s cheap (~$50 for the device, ~$20/mo for unlimited email), and does one thing, well according to most reviews. The company has made some smart moves already, but I’m convinced this is the smartest yet – for $150, you get a 5-pack of devices (~$100 savings), and the same $20/month. The package is aimed at small businesses, but would also work awesome for families.
Let’s take a look at the business application, though. Let’s say I’m a startup, and I have a force of 5 (or however many, that’s not really the issue here) team members. Clearly we need access to email, but you know what? That basically means I have to get everyone a smartphone (dumbphones suck for email). Sure, you can get a smartphone for $50 on any of the major carriers in the U.S., that’s no big deal.
What *IS* a big deal is that the Peek only costs me $20/mo, per device. For 5 devices, that’s $100/month. That’s cheaper than most people’s single cell phone bill. Even better, the Peek doesn’t require any activation fees (on most of the major carriers, that’ll cost $36/ea, times 5 is ~$180). In addition to that, you need to sign a 2-year contract for a major carrier, but the Peek is a simple monthly setup.
There’s some huge cost savings here, and in a time where specifically small businesses are hurting, and can use all the cost savings they can get. This is absolutely brilliant, and I hope that Peek has somehow contacted as many Chambers of Commerce as possible to get the word out to the smaller businesses who would find this useful.
Ricky Cadden 