Peek email without subscription for $299

For today and only today, you can get the Peek — the tiny little email-only PDA that Beschizza loved for being brazenly perfect at doing exactly what it was trying to do and not a jot more — for a lump sum price of $299.95.

That's ostensibly a crappy deal on a limited device that costs less than $100 bucks and only does e-mail, but where this deal gets good is that it includes unlimited email for life, where as the Peek usually requires a $20 a month email plan.

Even so, it's unlikely any of you guys will want one for yourself: your cell phones already do email. That said, now that the monthly fee has been taken out of the equation, this might suddenly make the Peek a more viable gift for a Ludditical relative who has so far eschewed always-on Internet connectedness.

Peek [Official Site]

[#1 posted by chroma , January 16, 2009 4:56 AM]

The "Official Site" link is wrong.

[#2 posted by Tommy , January 16, 2009 5:46 AM]

lifetime == as long as the company stays afloat?

[#3 posted by John Brownlee , January 16, 2009 6:07 AM]

Chroma, oh, right. Sorry. Fixing.

[#4 posted by Anonymous , January 16, 2009 9:06 AM]

The difference between the Peek w/ a subscription and this deal will pay for 20 months of the subscription. Most of these devices don't have a 2 year lifespan to begin with.

This is only a good deal if the email service is transferable to a new device when the first one dies.

[#5 posted by PLeblanc , January 16, 2009 7:57 PM]

Actually, this deal is the same as a 10 month subscription ($20 x 10 + $100 = $300).

Combine a peek for a mobile person with google's beta SMS, and voila you have instant free for perpetuity SMS between a computer handcuffed information worker and their free spirited wife/child/friend (hopefully not all at in one).

I couldn't *quite* buy this for my son since I want him to have emergency voice calls, but I came so close that I bought one for work (competitive evaluation, of course!).