The CrunchPad is dead. Michael Arrington’s browser based, budget friendly tablet will never see the light of day – despite claims from Arrington himself, only a few weeks ago, that the device would be launching soon.
TechCrunch founder Arrington had been working alongside Fusion Garage to develop the CrunchPad – a 12-inch touchscreen tablet with a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, WiFi and 3G – that was set to retail for less than £250. He said he had Intel selling him chips at a “zero margin” and claimed that Silicon Valley big cheeses were lining up to invest in the project.
But, just three days before the proposed November launch, Fusion Garage pulled the plug, deciding to drop TechCrunch out of the deal and go it alone. A decision that Arrington described as the equivalent of manufacturers Foxconn calling Apple and saying they wanted to sell the iPhone directly. It’s a move Arrington describes as “legally impossible” before stating that he will “be filing multiple lawsuits”.
It’s a sad day for Arrington. Not only was the CrunchPad so close that he could “taste it”, he’s also lost a friend. He thought that he and CEO of Fusion Garage, Chandra Rathakrishnan, would be friends for the rest of their lives. It’s a sad story really.
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