
CrunchPad Inc. Formed With 14 Employees In Singapore - theforay
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/07/06/story2.html?b=1246852800^1855381
======
wallflower
I have to applaud Michael Arrington for going out of his comfort zone and
taking on a sizeable project that is not guaranteed to be successful but if
fairly successful, will make a small impact on the tech industry, rather than
just reporting on it (like he does now).

------
raheemm
Here's some pics - [http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/09/crunchtablet-hits-
the-n...](http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/09/crunchtablet-hits-the-net-a-
little-early/)

Here's the original post from TC that got this started -
[http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/21/we-want-a-dead-
simple-w...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/21/we-want-a-dead-simple-web-
tablet-help-us-build-it/)

I wonder if they are still planning to keep the hardware design specs open-
source - that would be pretty cool

 _Edit: here is a video demo - looks
cool![http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/09/crunchtablet-hits-
the-n...](http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/09/crunchtablet-hits-the-net-a-
little-early/*)

------
MaysonL
I hope that it's successful enough that he can come out with a 2.0 with a
PixelQi screen.

------
Keyframe
light and thin touchscreen pdf reader / web browser with durable battery and
wifi is something I always wanted - I like where this is going.

------
planck
I think Arrington is vastly overestimating the number of people who will
actually buy a CrunchPad. It will cost more than $300, be too big to be
portable, but too crippled (no keyboard, no OS, no file storage, etc.) to be
anything more than a toy.

~~~
vaksel
he has more than 3.2 million people subscribing to the techcrunch rss feed, so
the actual number of people who read techcrunch is huge. And the crunchpad
will profit from the network effect.

people said the same thing about ipod, iphone and other apple products, as
long as you have a following, you can sell anything at any price

~~~
nir
I doubt the kind of following Apple has - people spending thousands of dollars
on its products, sticking with them even when their market share was marginal
etc - is comparable to people regularly reading a blog.

So far, other "A list" web celebs ventures have shown that, after the initial
hype, they succeed or fail based on their product's worth.

------
johnnybgoode
The problem is price. The estimate keeps going up. I think it's over $300 now.

~~~
greyman
Even if it is less than $300, how much less? I can have netbook for less than
$400...

I like the idea of CrunchPad, but still for the future I am thinking about
paying more and buy a netbook with touchscreen - then the only advantage of
CrunchPad I can think of is a shorter boot time.

Still, all the best to CrunchPad!

------
srwh
Really like the [obvious?] crunchpad product. I really expect a new generation
of products cloning iPhones, Kindles because Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia are
sleeping under its comfort zones. Cheers to ASUS too!

------
axod
It's sure to be as successful as seesmic.

~~~
acangiano
Your remark fails to consider that most successful entrepreneurs experience
failure in their lifetime. It's part of the game.

~~~
axod
Agreed, however, I think everyone could see instantly that seesmic was a dud.
As most can see that the Crunchpad is a dud. IMHO the idea of the Crunchpad is
something that has already been tried many many times before, with the net
result that there simply isn't a large market for such devices.

~~~
crescendo
I think the point is that for every wildly successful company out there, there
was surely an early group of naysayers who could see instantly that it was a
dud.

Arrington might fail here, but you have to give the guy a lot of credit for
how he has moved forward on this thing.

~~~
axod
Yup. Credit for moving forward with a bad idea that is sure to fail.

Wake up. It's half a laptop. - no keyboard, no protection for the screen - no
way to stand the screen up so you can view it - etc etc etc

It's about the same price as a netbook :/

------
vitocorleone
Apple buys parts in bulk so they can get huge discounts. if Arrington can't do
the same, he won't profit from this.

~~~
alain94040
Why is this comment downvotted so much? I happen to believe that it's the key
to the question. People just don't realize the buying power of Apple.

If you can build the CrunchPad for $200, you'd have a huge success. If you
build it for $500, it's dead on arrival. If it has the next gen CPU, it's a
success. If it runs with last year low power CPU, it's dead.

Plus you need great software on top of course, but the hardware can kill you.

------
andrewljohnson
I doubt TechCrunch has the expertise to make this thing as good as say, the
Kindle. I know people who work at Amazon, and that company has really good
engineers. I can't imagine TechCrunch does.

Arrington is just a Jeff Bezos wannabe, but he's missing the point. He thinks
hardware+media=money. But it needs to be good hardware!

~~~
dabeeeenster
The Kindle is vastly more complex than the Crunchpad. EInk, DRM store, mobile
network hardware, all sorts.

The crunchpad is basically a laptop without a keyboard, a touch screen and
some custom Linux software. It's really not that complex. Most of it is just
assembling components and writing some relatively straightforward software,
unless I'm missing something?

Say what you like about him, but Arrington is doggedly going after this
thing...

