In 2010, I had written about a simple email device called Peek launched in India by Aircel. According to news reports, the company has stopped its hardware device and made a strategic change from a hardware /device marketer to a service ( S/W) company. The Aircel website is also not given any info on this product and I assume that this product is dead in India too.
This marks the end of a product that aims to do only one thing- email service. In my previous post on this device, I had mentioned that the chance of survival of this product is minimal because of the fact that many mobiles are now offering the same service and more and it does not make sense to have an email only device. Only customers to which this product made sense was the business customers. There too, the brand failed to make the cut.The company has switched over to providing cloud based services and has associated with Micromax in India. So the company will move on but this simple device will not be available anymore.
The short PLC of this device highlight the fast changing world of technology which is disrupting many industries and product categories. The immense popularity of Android has infact accelerated the demise of this product.
There are many marketing theorists who argue about the virtue of specializing and concentrate on one benefit and excel in it. Peek was a brand doing just that but it proved to be myopic. Neither the brand cared to understand customer need nor was interested in changing to suit customer's new demands.
RIP Peek ( 2008-2012)
Related brand
No comments:
Post a Comment