Joojoo tablet unveiled

Man, Michael Arrington is gonna be so pissed. If he could get any more pissed than he already is.

We are no patent or intellectual property lawyers, so all we know is that there was this idea for a web tablet by the TechCrunch guys, or Michael Arrington, they found a partner to develop it with. Then, after a lot of rumours, mockups and prototypes, the Crunchpad was close to its launch – and something happened between the two of them, and the Crunchpad is reborn as the Joo tablet. Whew.

Joojoo tablet photo: Do we still want to call it Crunchpad?

For now, we have a few Joojoo photos for you here. Feast your eyes on the Crunchpad that never was. Oh, and those of you have been wondering what the ‘villain’ of the Crunchpad-Joojoo story (at least according to Arrington) looked like, here is a photo of Chandra Rathakrishnan too.

Photo: Chandra Rathakrishnan of Fusion Garage unveiling the Joojoo tablet

Fusion Garage CEO essentially said that any claims by TechCrunch and Michael Arrington was utter rubbish. He demoed the Joojoo tablet, and announced that it would be available at a price of $ 499 by Friday, for a delivery likely in around 2 months’ time.

Joojoo tablet specifications

Photo: Joojoo tablet

Essential specifications of the Joojoo tablet include a five hour battery life, 12.1 inch capacitive touchscreen, 4 GB solid state drive, 9-10 seconds of boot up time, and the ability to play high definition video. An accelerometer can sense and orient the joojoo’s screen in landscape or portrait mode, and it has Wi-Fi to connect to a wireless network or hotspot. Specs-wise, that is all we have for now.

The Crunchpad-Joojoo story

Fusion Garage CEO CHandra Rathakrishnan said that unlike what Michael Arrington portrayed in his blog about the split between the two, the real objective of the TechCrunch head was to acquire a controlling stake in Fusion Garage. Obviously, things have not gone that way. Considering Michael Arrongton’s reputation as a tough as nails blogger and attorney, many would be inclined to believe the Rathakrishnan version of the split. We definitely do not know who to believe here.

Meanwhile what we have in hand is the Joojoo tablet, which would probably go right into litigation right now. So do not even be sure that even after ponying up a price of $ 500 for the Joojoo tablet, you are going to get it. The future, really, is unpredictable for the Crunchpad-Joojoo.

Chandra Rathakrishnan said that there was no way Michael Arrington, TechCrunch or Crunchpad owned any rights to the Joojoo tablet. No contracts were ever signed, he said. He said that Crunchpad was meant as a distribution company, and not a single line of code was contributed by TechCrunch towards the development fo the Crunchpad.

Considering the high price of $ 499 for the Joojoo tablet (or Crunchpad), we are left a little confused. How is this device any different from any internet tablet? Maybe because it is larger?

No apps are included with the Joojoo tablet. Without an app store of some kind, without any retail tieups at present, and without any real marketing muscle, will Fusion Garage and Chandra Rathakrishnan be able to pull off the Joojoo / Crunchpad? Doubtful – but that is the kind of success story we frankly like to see.

Meanwhile, Michael Arrington has threatened a lawsuit against Fusion Garage, but he has not filed anything so far.