The Peek email only device has been quite popular in the US since it launched (and in fact, they now also have a Twitter only device too, which unlike some of the reviews does include Twitpic support and the ability to open links, but not much else).  However, FON, another company I have been a supporter of with their Wi-Fi sharing network, have now announced they will be selling the PeekFON with European GPRS roaming from this month (although not shipping until next month).

The device will go on sale tomorrow (Tuesday 15th) for €99, and that will include 6 months of European GPRS roaming to allow you access to your email anywhere where the device can get a working mobile phone signal.  After that, it’s €12.90 per month, and there is no cancellation policy, so no long term contract to worry about either.

For now, the device is an email-only device (although with a full QWERTY keyboard, that’s still going to be a popular device), and in time, FON hope to add web browsing and Twitter support too.

This device doesn’t use the FON Wi-Fi Hotspot technology at all, but has been launched as a complimentary product; if it supports your email service provider (it’s not yet clear whether this will use your existing email provider, or require you to use a dedicated email address), then this does look an interesting device for the reguar traveller, especially with that lack of roaming costs across Europe; imagine being on holiday, or on a business trip, and still be able to keep up with all your email without fear of “bill shock”; an even better proposition when they are able to add twitter and web browsing support.

Certainly, the Peek device in the US allows access to up to 2 email accounts, and that includes Google Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, AOL, and Yahoo!, so assuming that the software inside is similar, then this European device should also support a variety of email accounts.  It will feature a 2.5″ screen, a scroll wheel (and back button) on the side, and the QWERTY keyboard.  It’s roughly 4″ x 2.7″ x 0.4″ and weighs around 100 grams, and in essence, is similar to the early BlackBerry device in the sense that it is a data only device.  It seems to have a total of 16MB of Flash, of which 8MB is allocated to the OS, and 8MB for email data.  It’s said in the US to manage 4  to 5 days between charges (wow, that’s so much better than most mobile phones!) and a recharge takes around 2 hours.  It should support blinking LED, ringing and vibrate to alert you to new email.

Finally, it appears to be able to view JPG attachments, but not anything else; there’s a second device in the US that supports 5 email accounts, push email, sending SMSes, and PDF & DOC support as well as JPG attachments, but I don’t think this is the device being targetted in Europe right now, although it’s not clear.

FON have announced that the mobile data will be provided by Europe’s first pan-European MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), Spotnik.

Obviously, for those with corporate BlackBerry devices (and others who don’t actually pay the bill for mobile data roaming) this will not be popular, but for the rest of us, it’s certainly a device to consider.  Imagine letting your elder kids go off travelling around Europe for 6 months knowing that they can keep in contact with you…

Personally, I think devices that offer full European roaming built into the device are going to sell well as niche devices; in that respect this device is similar to the Amazon Kindle (which features even greater worldwide coverage), and although many people will not want or need this device (preferring to either pay the roaming charges, or will swap a local country SIM into their phone), for some people this offers a very cheap way of getting access to email and twitter (once supported) across Europe, and for that requirements, we recommend you at least look at this device…

We’ll publish more on this, including links to purchasing it once they go live, but for now, keep an eye on the FON website…

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Gadgets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.