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A sure sign of depression, psychologists say, is not wanting to talk. If that’s the case, America is due for another great one, as the most popular gadget currently on sale is a mobile phone that never utters a word.

Unlike the Google phone or the iPhone 3G, each competing with the other to offer the most features, the Peek goes to the opposite extreme. It’s a simple, cheap (£53) device with a full qwerty keyboard and 2½in screen used only for e-mailing and texting. There’s no web surfing, no camera, no MP3 player and certainly no speech.

Although the Peek uses T-Mobile’s phone network, there are no contracts or data tariffs to worry about; just a flat monthly fee of $20 (£13). This covers sending and receiving e-mails from up to three addresses, currently in the US only. It also includes unlimited text messages, which here in America normally cost a painful 20 cents (13p) each to send – and the same amount to receive.

The Peek isn’t designed for panicking bankers and paranoid executives, so if you buy one when you’re over here, don’t expect it to be able to open Office documents or, come to that, any attachment more advanced than a simple Jpeg image. It doesn’t use fashionable high-speed 3G technology and it doesn’t have a GPS to navigate you home.

Nonetheless, the Peek is one of the few gadgets still flying off the shelves in the run-up to Christmas. It is topping this year’s most-wanted lists at both Time and Wired magazines – a rare achievement.

The reason is not hard to deduce. As we slide into the first digital recession, what better way to block out news of plummeting house prices and evaporating retirement funds than by filtering all your communications through the Peek? After all, talk may be cheap – but it’s not as cheap as the Peek.