CrunchPad Being Re-branded As JooJoo 277
adeelarshad82 writes to tell us that Fusion Garage seems to be ignoring the drama surrounding the "CrunchPad" and is planning to launch their "JooJoo" tablet this Friday at midnight. Unfortunately, the device will be a long way from the imagined $200 price point, weighing in at a hefty $499. "The JooJoo comes in black and has a capacitive touch screen, enough graphic power to deliver full high-definition video, offline capabilities, and a 4GB solid-state drive, though 'most of the storage is done in the cloud,' Rathakrishnan said. He promised 5 hours of battery life. In a demo during the webcast, the device powered on in about 10 seconds, and showed icons for web-based services like Twitter, Hulu, CNN, and Gmail, though the JooJoo will not come pre-loaded with any apps, Rathakrishnan said. Scroll through them with your finger as you would on the iPhone. In terms of the ownership drama, Rathakrishnan said that TechCrunch editor Arrington has created an 'incomplete and distorted story.'"
Where I stopped reading... (Score:5, Insightful)
...though 'most of the storage is done in the cloud...
Retarded Name (Score:3, Insightful)
Tablet market seems like the ultimate niche (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see the pure tablet play working, not from JooJoo, not even from apple - it's always going to be a niche, and a small one.
The one way I can perhaps see it working is if you either build in a collapsible keyboard, or let them work with bluetooth keyboards and have some way to attach it making a kind of temporary laptop. There are just too many uses of a computer where the ability to type for long periods is needed, to get away without a real keyboard in a larger form factor. There are already netbooks with touch screens and that just seems way more practical.
JooJoo has issues outside the name though, the price point does not seem great for what it does.
Price point???? ARRRGHGGGH!!! (Score:1, Insightful)
People who use the phrase "price point" instead of "price" need to be shot in the head.
Re:Where I stopped reading... (Score:5, Insightful)
I stopped at the new name...."JooJoo" I'm guessing this guy doesn't have much of an understanding at least of how naming should be done for the US. JooJoo sounds too...well, foofoo/gay.....
No, it doesn't. It sounds like bad luck, or some kind of insult towards Jewish people. Both seem like a bad idea.
Hell, that is about as bad as that company "Wang" a couple of decades ago. Did they not have any idea of the connotations of "wang" in the US?
You know, Mr. Wang probably didn't think it was a bad idea to name his company after himself.
Re:Retarded Name (Score:3, Insightful)
That’s basically the same thing I said about the Nintendo Wii.
Re:Where I stopped reading... (Score:5, Insightful)
Price alone shows "crunchpad" was vapor idea... (Score:5, Insightful)
The CrunchPad model only made sense at the low price: something inexpensive and universal.
But the low price never made sense. Apple doesn't make much money on the iPod touch, and they have all the huge economies of scale, and its still costs $200 for the 8 GB model. Add in a MUCH larger screen and bigger battery and of course the price will balloon.
Re:Tablet market seems like the ultimate niche (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, but e-book readers are apparently the hot item for the Holidays this year. If you can sell a device with a slow-refreshing screen that only does 16 levels of grayscale and supports no applications except a document viewer and (maybe) a stripped-down Web browser for $260, why wouldn't people be willing to buy a more fully-featured device for a similar price?
Unless said "more fully-featured device" has an eink display, I think the answer to that is obvious.
Re:Where I stopped reading... (Score:4, Insightful)
No doubt so the Elders of Zion (who live in the clouds) can read your data. ;-)
Re:Price (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Tablet market seems like the ultimate niche (Score:5, Insightful)
You forgot about the fact that the slow-refreshing screen uses basically no static power. The end result is that such devices have INCREDIBLE battery life.
Over and over I hear how important this is. Why is it important?
Just how many two-week-long vacations on desert islands do you take in a year? Otherwise, how hard is it to plug in your e-book reader overnight? Surely a lot of people read books in bed and would have no trouble putting their reader into a cradle before rolling over and going to sleep?
Re:Boycott? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Tablet market seems like the ultimate niche (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not as important as resolution. If you've seen one of these in person, you know that e-ink has print-like density. It's sharp and clear. It's the "no eye fatigue" that makes the screen worth paying for. Low battery usage is just icing.
Re:Where I stopped reading... (Score:5, Insightful)
In the Producers they named a musical "Springtime For Hitler" in a secret plot to piss people off and lose money. Perhaps that's part of their strategy to so devalue the Crunchpad that the Techcruch guys will drop their lawsuit.
As much as I hate Apple (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Price (Score:3, Insightful)
There may be a few fools who are easily parted from their money, but I predict this product is a flop. The trend is towards smaller and *smarter* devices, not towards further dumbing-down. The name "joo-joo" seems quite applicable, because monosyllabic nonsense names describe this product to a tee.
Re:Price alone shows "crunchpad" was vapor idea... (Score:2, Insightful)
That is a VERY old link, back when an iPod Touch was $400, not $200.
The bill of materials has not gone down by much in price: its still pretty close to $150 for materials, assembly, test, and shipping from China, especially when you consider the cost of the touchscreen.
And selling outside of the direct to consumer channel, Apple has to be selling it to the retailers for not that much more. The profit on the iPod touch at $200 is Not Much, probably the lowest of any major device Apple has ever sold.
In fact, it wouldn't suprise me if the $200, 8 GB touch has a close to zero profit to apple when sold through a non-Apple retailer... That is, until the buyer start loading apps on it.