The Three T's that will hurt JooJoo's chances at success
In case you missed it, the Crunchpad tablet PC-like device that was announced by TechCrunch's Michael Arrington earlier this year has run into some internal problems - no, not the technical, operational or manufacturing type problems, but rather the political type.
A week ago, Arrington - clearly in a spat with former partners involved in the venture - declared the Crunchpad dead. But this week, it's surfaced again, this time called JooJoo and being offered instead by Fusion Garage, the company that was reportedly partnering with Arrington and team - depending on whose version of the story you believe.
I'll spare you the back-and-forth versions of what happened between TechCrunch and Fusion Garage, largely because it will probably end up being argued out in a courtroom anyway and it's all over the Web, too. That brings me the first "T" reason that I believe JooJoo doesn't stand much of a chance:
TechCrunch: Certainly, Arrington and team won't go down without a fight on this one. They believe their partner did them wrong and it probably goes without saying that this will end up in court. If that ends up happening, there's no real reason for any consumer to actually roll the dice that this device - and support for it - will be around in the short-term future, let alone the long-term. Who in their right minds will drop $500 for a device like this with a dark legal cloud hovering over it?
Too expensive: At $499, this is not a cheap device. Sure, it's an Internet device and even an e-reader, but who cares? There are already less expensive options in the e-reader category and, if it's an Internet device you're looking for, then netbooks and notebooks are available for roughly the same money, give or take a few bucks. Maybe the technology and design of this design demands a $500 price tag to make it worth manufacturing - but I think I'll just keep my $500, thank you very much.
Timing: In a nutshell, it sucks. The device becomes available this Friday, Dec. 11. Perfect timing for the holidays, you say? Well, you can buy it on Friday but it wont ship for another 8-10 weeks. So much for the holiday season, right? But maybe 8-10 weeks isn't so bad - except that, by then, there will certainly be more buzz about Apple's rumored iTablet. Even though Apple is no longer part of Macworld and that event has been kicked to February, it won't stop the rumor mill from talking iTablet again. If I have an extra $500 laying around for a tablet PC device, I'm definitely going to wait in hopes that the Apple rumor mill knows something I don't know.