Finally, the (controversial) JooJoo is here ! The much hyped CrunchPad(now JooJoo) tablet, so-called brainchild of TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington, has opened its floodgates to start taking Pre-orders for their Internet Tablet device.
The company behind this internet tablet, Fusion Garage, is currently in a tussle with TechCrunch, a highly infuential technology blog that brought up the whole idea of an Internet Tablet, some 1.5 years back. TechCrunch named the internet tablet as CrunchPad, and kept updating the media on the progress of the CrunchPad with pictures of the prototypes built, every once in a while.
It was the last day of last month, when all of a sudden, CrunchPad collapsed. And soonafter JooJoo took a fresh lease of life.
The latest update over the entire controversy is that TechCrunch has filed a Federal lawsuit against Fusion Garage, with causes of legal action as Fraud and Deceit, Misappropriation of Business Ideas, Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Unfair Competitition and Violations of the Lanham Act.
As promised by Fusion Garage founder, the official website of JooJoo has started taking Pre-orders now. The pre-orders are currently limited to U.S. only. The cost of the device is $499 with additional $30(optional) for JooJoo Stand(the only accessory with JooJoo). According to the site, it will take 8-10 weeks for them to ship the JooJoo to your doorstep, once pre-ordered.
The device is undoubtedly cool and unique for plenty of reasons. The 12.1” capacitive touchscreen, 9 seconds boot time, staggering UI and HD Video experience are its main attractions.
Now comes the BIG question….Is it worth it ? Should you pre-order JooJoo ?
Honestly, its a BIG NO from us. We DO NOT recommend any of the crazy freaks out there to go pre-order JooJoo and there are several reasons for it. Here are three major reasons why NOT to buy a JooJoo !
1. As pointed out by TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington in his recent post, Fusion Garage is almost out of funds. They’ve exhausted whatever they had raised this far and they’re suffering from alarming level of debts right now. Now, TechCrunch is a trusted source, except few cases when it screwed up things too badly so there’re reasons to believe them, especially when it’s about their own brainchild, the CrunchPad (now JooJoo).
Now as you’re not getting the device right away(it’s a a pre-ordering) and Fusion Garage gets busted within coming weeks, your money is gone ! There’s no reason putting your hard earned money at such a risk.
2. JooJoo, the company behind it (Fusion Garage) and the founder (Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan) are all under huge controversies at the moment. Lawsuit has been filed against Fusion Garage and JooJoo is being ubiquitously criticized for plenty of reasons by tech fraternity. All of this makes JooJoo, a bad device for pre-ordering, atleast for now.
3. JooJoo is way too costly. We agree, its unique in many regards but that doesn’t justify its cost ($500) at all.
And if you’re still interested in exhausting your $500 for JooJoo, take one last suggestion of ours….Go right here and better donate $500 to Wikipedia. In return, expect some tax deduction and some peace of mind.