In what appears to be indicative of Twitter's success and growing popularity, a new gadget has hit the market that has been developed specifically - and solely - for users to send and receive tweets.

TwitterPeek, a $99.95 device with a QWERTY keyboard, color screen and click-scroll wheel offered through Amazon.com, could prove to be the hot selling item for the holiday season. On one hand, it's less expensive than a smartphone upgrade. On the other, it could also prove dud-worthy if demand never materializes.

Mobile Marketing Support

Marketers are hoping for the former scenario because such a gizmo could also potentially support their emerging mobile ad campaigns on the microblogging site, according to econsultancy.com.

Even without a dedicated device however, marketers are finding ever-new ways to segment and connect with tweeters. For example, the recently debuted "Twitter Lists" function was immediately deployed by the National Hockey League to help fans connect and share online conversations.
New Ways to Listen

Other new offerings don’t provide a messaging path to the masses - but do provide more ways to listen to what they are saying. TwitCritics is a new service that offers real-time movie reviews and ratings directly from the Twitterverse. Users can click on any current movie listed to read the review tweets. Another is Tweetrad.io, which lets users listen to Twitter search results. It's divided into several topics including tech, news, sports, funny and featured. Tweets are read by an automated Twitter DJ as they are posted.