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The CrunchPad tablet is dead, is anybody surprised?

11/30/2009 at 2:34 PM by Brad Linder 29 Comments

crunchpad concept

For much of the past year, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has been working with a small group on a pet project called the CrunchPad. It was designed to be a 12 inch tablet style device for surfing the web from a couch. While Arrington always said the device was supposed to be a web-only device with little local storage, and the browser as the most important element, as the project started to come together it started to look more and more like a netbook. The latest prototypes had Intel Atom processors and were probably going to be ripe with opportunities for hackers looking to install alternative operating systems.

But as far as I was concerned, there were always a few major flaws in the concept. First, the idea of a touch-only device for interacting with the web feels very 2004 to me. The web has come to be an interactive medium, and text input is crucial for sending email, writing blog comments, updating social networking sites, and performing other actions. While touchscreen phones like the iPhone have shown that people can use an on-screen keyboard to perform these actions, I have yet to meet a person that can type 100 words per minute with their thumbs.

Second, the CrunchPad was expected to sell for around $300. With netbook prices falling, you can pick up a full fledged mini-laptop with a keyboard, a larger hard drive, and well… everything else you would expect from a computer.

So I wasn’t at all surprised to read today that the CrunchPad project is, for all intents and purposes, dead. I was a bit surprised to find out why. It had nothing to do with the price, demand for the product, or any other external force. Rather, the company that Arrington had partnered with to produce the device got into a dispute with Arrington. While only one side of the story is available at the moment, Arrington basically says that they tried to kick him out of the project altogether and sell it under a different name.

This doesn’t exactly spell the end of the internet tablet concept. Apple is expected to launch a tablet style device sometime next year, although all we have to go on is rumor and speculation at the moment. Microsoft is also expected to introduce a tablet-style device based on a journal or diary-like paradigm. I’ll be curious to see how well either does. Both are positioned as new types of computing devices.

They aren’t designed to replace a desktop, laptop, or cellphone. I’m not convinced that people are clamoring for yet another alternative way to connect with the internet, but I am convinced that if you hand somebody something that looks more like a computer than a consumer electronics device (such as a cellphone), they’ll expect it to act like a computer with a full desktop operating system. So I think the success of these upcoming tablets will rely greatly on the ability of companies to distinguish them from existing computers and present usage scenerios that make sense for users.

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greggmarshall
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greggmarshall
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I’m actually disappointed. As I think about my needs, I had come to the conclusion a 12″ tablet with a way to add a keyboard, mouse, monitor externally, support for Windows 7 (to use live Mesh easily) would be the way to go. If the CrunchPad’s battery would hold up for 6-8 hours it sounds like what I was looking for.

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9 years ago
AllRise
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TechCrunch VS. Fusion Garage is now online at the AllRise court. Join the debate and cast your vote – http://bit.ly/AllRise277

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9 years ago
Mike Cane
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>>>I have yet to meet a person that can type 100 words per minute with their thumbs.

WTF? I can’t even type 100 wpm with my fingers on a real keyboard. You must get out and check out the kids who zoooom text-typing on their Sidekicks with their thumbs. A capacitive tablet screen is good enough for web interaction: URLs (which become bookmarks) and social media updates. Only a total maniac like me might try to create an entire blog post that way.

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9 years ago
Brad Linder
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The little fish get eaten by the big fish; or
when a shark asks a little fish out for lunch…
Welcome to the real world of business Mr. Arrington.

Is it “New 2010” or “New 2004”?
That is Marketing vs. Sales.
Marketing: Make people think it is “New 2010” and they need to buy it.
Sales: Make people think it is an improved “New 2004” and they need to buy it.

Right now it sounds like we will never know which “spin” CrunchPad, Inc.
was going to put on the “glossies” for this device.

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9 years ago
andrej
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I’m eagerly awaiting a tablet device, which i can use to read the news while having breakfast, or while sitting on a couch.Have you not heard of bluetooth? there really is no reason to attach the keyboard to the screen. Just use a remote one if you need to type a lot.

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9 years ago
geep
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geep
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I wonder if pressure wasn`t applied by that guy in jeans and black neckless sweater?

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9 years ago
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空中分解した CrunchPad プロジェクト « maclalala:link
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[…] The CrunchPad tablet is dead, is anybody surprised? | liliputing.com So I wasn’t at all surprised to read today that the CrunchPad project is, for all intents and purposes, dead. I was a bit surprised to find out why. It had nothing to do with the price, demand for the product, or any other external force. Rather, the company that Arrington had partnered with to produce the device got into a dispute with Arrington. While only one side of the story is available at the moment, Arrington basically says that they tried to kick him out of the project altogether and sell it under a different name. […]

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9 years ago
Hashim Warren
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Hashim Warren
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The Crunchpad is dead a business because the economics of it don’t make sense.

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9 years ago
lccurtis1
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lccurtis1
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You’re comment is the first one to make sense. No need for a device that cost more than you average netbook with less specs. As far as reading the news in the morning how about paying 50 cent for a newspaper.

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9 years ago
wilhelmus
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wilhelmus
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I think the whole point of the tablet idea is that it’s to fill a specific niche. How big that niche is, time will tell. A lightweight device with a large screen for primarily surfing the web would be a welcome device for me to fill the gap between my laptop and mobile device.

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9 years ago
Ben
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Ben
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Yes, well said, that is exactly the point. It is a niche device designed for a specific need. Just because the hardware specs sound “similar” to a netbook it does not mean that this will compete directly with them, they are for two different things.

I was looking for exactly this device around a year ago. I wanted a device with a large screen for reading ebooks and watching movies but without the baggage of a keyboard but no such device exists. Thus, this would have been perfect for me.

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9 years ago
Alok Saboo
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Alok Saboo
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Death of crunchpad may be a small loss for Arrington, but it is a huge loss for consumers in general. Find out why we needed Crunchpad so badly http://truvoipbuzz.com/2009/11/why-we-needed-the-crunchpad-so-badly-opinion/

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9 years ago

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