5 reasons why JooJoo failed
Still remember the JooJoo (sounds like dog’s name anyway)? It first received attention in July 2008 when Michael Arrington from TechCrunch announced his interest to produce a tablet computer called CrunchPad that boots to the browser immediately once it’s turned on. Feedback had been positive at that moment, and Michael worked with Fusion Garage, a company in Singapore headed by CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan to design and engineer the tablet.
Then, everything came tumbling down when Fusion Garage wrote Michael Arrington (and possibly TechCrunch too?) off partnership, citing that their investors “felt” Michael or TechCrunch was doing nothing but just writing few notes about CrunchPad on TechCrunch, that’s all. Michael got furious, vowed to sue Fusion Garage and Chandra Rathakrishnan for fraud and deceit, misappropriation of business ideas, breach of fiduciary duty, unfair competition, and violations of the Lanham Act, and terminated all publicity about CrunchPad, which was changed to the name JooJoo (damn, still sounds like a dog’s name) after the partnership collapsed.
The production still went on, Malaysian CSL was chosen as the manufacturer for the device. Released on March 25, 2010, about 2 months after Apple’s iPad release, amazing(-ly low) 90 units of JooJoo were sold.
Now, where is it now? I think the company is in deep shit now, investors must have lost all their cash in Fusion Garage. No where we know where is Fusion Garage, CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan or news about the JooJoo.
From technology, business and marketing point of view, here’s my 5 reasons why the JooJoo failed:
- Calling off the partnership with Michael Arrington and TechCrunch
Michael Arrington is one of the best network you could find in today’s web and tech world. The relationships he has with various VCs, PRs and readers in TechCrunch make him special. If it’s a fact that Michael and his gang did nothing but to provide publicity and marketing to CrunchPad, the partnership would still be great because it’s not easy to get in touch with such a huge network.When Chandra were to call the partnership off, he must get another source of publicity and marketing. Sadly, he did not (or could not). He ended up marketing and promoting the product by himself. Furthermore, the calling off of partnership with TechCrunch meant calling off publicity from tens and thousands of TechCrunch readers.
- Just browser?
Having seen the tablet PC went down south, putting in just a browser in that device didn’t raise any eyebrow. When Apple iPad was out in January 2010, they should have delayed their production, shifted their vision to somewhere else, instead of going head-to-head with the trend-setting giant Apple’s iPad. It would be a definite crash and death on the spot for JooJoo. - Supporting software
When friends told me about iPad, they called it a super-size iPhone. Yes, I agree. It was nothing much fantastic about it. But look, iPad is not about technology at all. Never it was about technology, but it was all about extending its reach and sales of Apple’s Appstore. That’s all. iPad brings in another business model especially on iBooks, and many other fresh apps.When one talks about a product and only look at what it’s in that product, he’s bound to be a technical person. We gotta look at not just what’s in a product, but also what’s around a product (e.g. business model). Trust me, even iPhone would fail if it didn’t have an Appstore to extend its usefulness.
- Price
Having limited productivity and software on JooJoo, it is a no brainer that JooJoo wasn’t worth buying compared to Apple iPad for the same price tag – $499. - Greed
You know I hate greedy people. Either Fusion Garage’s investors or its founder Chandra was too greedy. They intended to make a big leap and expected huge return from their first product. Greed is more dangerous than drugs.
Could have JooJoo/CrunchPad changed its fate should Michael Arrington/TechCrunch be still in the partnership? No, because the partner is Fusion Garage.
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