The JooJoo is a big NooNoo

Remember that story about a guy who wanted a tablet computer he could use to consume the Internet while sitting on a couch? Well, despite all the he-said/she-said going on, the people at Fusion Garage are pushing it as far as they can by unveiling the same product but under a different name, meet the Joo Joo:

The African word “joujou,” means magical device. JooJoo is an entirely new consumer electronics device that defies categorization. It was built from the ground up to bring users into a magical, yet real world where everything on the Internet is just a single touch away. With JooJoo, the Internet is the application.

JooJoo is a product of Fusion Garage. Fusion Garage was founded by Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan in February 2008 to change the way the Internet is consumed.

The JooJoo weights only 1.1kg and will feature a 12.1″ touch-screen, 4GB SSD, WiFi connectivity, and 5 hours of battery life. It will use a Linux-based OS that will only feature a web browser.

As of today Fusion Garage is taking pre-orders through their website, the tablet costs $499 and the orders will ship in 8-1o weeks.

Ok, now to my fantastic rant.

This thing is nothing more than an over-sized iPhone, it has no buttons, the OS is nothing but the browser, but it’s not Google Chrome as it was mentioned before when it was still known as CrunchPad, and it costs $500 US.

The idea behind the CrunchPad was to have a cheap internet tablet with a big screen but without being as bulky as a full sized laptop/notebook/netbook, the expected cost of that one was at about $199.

Right now they’re taking pre-orders only, from there you would have to wait 8 to 10 weeks before it’s shipped. Now let’s slow down for a second.

They’re asking people to cough up $500 bucks on a gadget that was meant to cost $199, and then you have to wait 8 to 10 WEEKS to get it? That means they have no money to build them so they’re betting all out on people actually falling for it, hell, they might even disappear once they get the money and never be heard from again…..

Let’s recap:

1. Fusion Garage has just engaged into legal action with Arrington over the rights and stuff
2. The tablet consists of a touch-screen and a browser
3. $500 US
4. Pre-orders only at the moment
5. 8 to 10 weeks waiting period O_o

It looks to me that this is the most likely ending for this drama:

• There won’t be enough people backing up the yo-yo joojoo
• The court might order Fusion Garage to stop all production and sells until they decide the final outcome of the case
• No Crounchpad/joojoo for anybody
• Some other company will come up with something similar and take a giant dump on everybody else 😀

It’s too bad everything went sour for those guys, but I guess that’s what happens when you trust somebody too much instead of looking at them as just business partners. A solid contract could have prevented everything going straight to hell, but who knows, there might still be a light at the end of the tunnel for this gadget.