Peek Launches $99 Dedicated Twitter Gadget

For Twitter fans who want an easy way to tweet other than their cell phones and PCs, gadget-maker Peek introduced a dedicated device that's always ready to tweet.

TwitterPeek is a $99 palm-sized device with a QWERTY keyboard, color screen and click scroll wheel. It comes with six months of unlimited service. After that, buyers have to pay $7.95 a month for the service. Paying $199 upfront for TwitterPeek gets the buyer unlimited Twitter service for the lifetime of the device.

Peek promises nationwide coverage in the United States and is selling the TwitterPeek with a 30-day money back guarantee. The device also comes with a one-year manufacturer's warranty.

TwitterPeek is available exclusively on Amazon.

Peek, which also sells dedicated e-mail gadgets, is launching TwitterPeek at a time when growth in the number of Twitter users may be leveling off. After growing more than 1,000% over the last 12 months, the number of unique visitors in September fell 0.17% from the previous month, according to Web analytics firm Compete. The site attracted 23.5 million visitors that month.

Whether TwitterPeek will be a hot item during the holiday-shopping season remains to be seen. Twitter is accessible over text messaging, which is a feature of virtually every cell phone on the market today. Also, many companies offer downloadable smartphone applications for Twitter power-users. Those products include, for example, Tweetie, an easy-to-use and versatile Twitter client for Apple's iPhone. A new version of the product was release last month. Tweetie costs $2.99.

Blue Cross of Northeast Pennsylvania, the University of Louisville School of Medicine, and a range of large and small healthcare providers are using mobile apps to improve care and help patients manage their health. Find out how. Download the report here (registration required).