The First Dedicated Twitter Gadget: Is it Necessary?

Okay, I’m not usually this much of a hater…scratch that, yes I am. With that said, the new TwitterPeek seems like a huge exercise in WTF. According to CNet, the device, which launched today is the first gadget solely dedicated to tweeting. Translation: There’s no email, no texting, no web browser — just tweeting.

TwitterPeek comes with a full QWERTY keypad and that’s about it. You don’t need WiFi since it connects to the internet using cell phone towers. There’s no camera so you can forget about tweeting photos. Oh, and it’s available in gray and aqua.

So let’s talk about what it can do. It can send tweets. It can receive tweets. You can also retweet, reply, and direct message. Correct me if I’m wrong, but can’t I do all this stuff on any half-functioning smartphone AND do email, make calls, take pictures, and play music? So the question remains, why was this gadget even created? With all the dedicated Twitter apps available on every single mobile OS, it seems like a piss-poor attempt in trying to cash in on the latest craze. It might make sense for Peek who also sell gadgets dedicated to email and texting respectively.

Speaking of price, you can purchase TwitterPeek from Amazon.com or from the gadget’s website. $99 buys you the device and six months of unlimited tweeting. After the six months you pay Peek $7.95 a month to keep the party going. However, if you pony up $199, you get the gadget and unlimited tweeting for life. I can’t make this stuff up people.

Not to totally bash this product, I can see this being a really cool thing for those of us without smartphones. But with every phone iteration adding a few more features, there’s going to come a day when the “dumbphone” is no more. And for those of us that own smartphones, we already have unlimited plans that allow us to access Twitter when and wherever, with little or no fuss. As tech companies find more ways to consolidate more functions into one gadget, it just doesn’t make since to create one-off pieces of tech like this. It just seems doomed for the landfill, which raises the question, just how recyclable is this tech?

So my dear techies, are you going to invest in a TwitterPeek? Let me know in the comments.