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August 16, 2011 07:47 pm EDT
The most telling moment of our conversation with Chandra Rathakrishnan came at the end, just before the recording device shut off. The interview wrapped, and we politely thanked the Fusion Garage CEO for taking the time to speak with us. "Thank you for taking the time," he echoed, adding, "And for giving us another chance." Rathakrishnan never goes so far as to use the word "failure" to describe the company's poorly received JooJoo tablet -- at least not during the course of our interview -- but it seems clear that he harbors few illusions with regards to what the device truly was: a misfire. A grandiose experiment that was rushed out the door far too fast, with far too few resources.
The device's origins weren't all that pretty, either. The company teamed up with TechCrunch to offer up a $200 internet tablet dubbed the CrunchPad -- a plan that soon soured, with the two parting ways on a less-than-positive note. Fusion Garage rebranded the CrunchPad the JooJoo, and began a long journey of delays and price hikes. Despite its best efforts, it missed the boat, failing to release the device ahead of Apple's industry shaping iPad. When the 4GB tablet finally hit the market, it carried a $499 price tag -- more than double its initial utopian target.
The reviews weren't kind either. We gave the slate a three out of ten. Not surprisingly, the device failed to catch fire -- and while Rathakrishnan insists that sales weren't quite as dismal as reported, it's hard to imagine a yardstick by which the JooJoo might be considered a success. A firmware update did help matters a bit, but it was too little too late. So Fusion Garage regrouped, and in an industry where second chances for startups seem far-fetched at best, the company went undercover, working on a mystery campaign launched to coincide with the Steve Jobs keynote at WWDC.
A lot of money and resources were clearly poured into the promotion, which included a series of viral videos and the purchase of a sponsored tweet for the duration of August 15th -- the day of the company's big reveal. Whether that price actually bought the Rathakrishnan and Co. a second chance is debatable -- it did, however, afford Fusion Garage a level of press it might not have earned had it continued with business as usual. Whatever their reactions may have been to the actual announcement, people did genuinely want to know who precisely this TabCo company was.
Rathakrishnan dominated the stage during the strange little press conference, debuting the Grid 10 tablet, the Grid 4 phone and the Grid operating system, which tied the whole show together. In spite of building the OS on top of the Android kernel, Rathakrishnan also used the platform to tear into the Google mobile OS and the tablets that utilize it. The company, it seems, has no illusions about going toe to toe with Apple this time around, but the CEO is maintaining a sense of unflinching faith in the product's ability to succeed on its own merits -- even if convincing users to actually give the thing a shot will be an uphill battle.
We sat down with Rathakrishnan the night of his company's big unveiling to discuss the mistakes of the JooJoo, the importance of the Grid OS and why he believes that Fusion Garage deserves that second chance.
Original Link: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/16/the-engadget-interview-fusion-garages-chandra-rathakrishnan/
The Engadget Interview: Fusion Garage's Chandra Rathakrishnan
The device's origins weren't all that pretty, either. The company teamed up with TechCrunch to offer up a $200 internet tablet dubbed the CrunchPad -- a plan that soon soured, with the two parting ways on a less-than-positive note. Fusion Garage rebranded the CrunchPad the JooJoo, and began a long journey of delays and price hikes. Despite its best efforts, it missed the boat, failing to release the device ahead of Apple's industry shaping iPad. When the 4GB tablet finally hit the market, it carried a $499 price tag -- more than double its initial utopian target.
The reviews weren't kind either. We gave the slate a three out of ten. Not surprisingly, the device failed to catch fire -- and while Rathakrishnan insists that sales weren't quite as dismal as reported, it's hard to imagine a yardstick by which the JooJoo might be considered a success. A firmware update did help matters a bit, but it was too little too late. So Fusion Garage regrouped, and in an industry where second chances for startups seem far-fetched at best, the company went undercover, working on a mystery campaign launched to coincide with the Steve Jobs keynote at WWDC.
A lot of money and resources were clearly poured into the promotion, which included a series of viral videos and the purchase of a sponsored tweet for the duration of August 15th -- the day of the company's big reveal. Whether that price actually bought the Rathakrishnan and Co. a second chance is debatable -- it did, however, afford Fusion Garage a level of press it might not have earned had it continued with business as usual. Whatever their reactions may have been to the actual announcement, people did genuinely want to know who precisely this TabCo company was.
Rathakrishnan dominated the stage during the strange little press conference, debuting the Grid 10 tablet, the Grid 4 phone and the Grid operating system, which tied the whole show together. In spite of building the OS on top of the Android kernel, Rathakrishnan also used the platform to tear into the Google mobile OS and the tablets that utilize it. The company, it seems, has no illusions about going toe to toe with Apple this time around, but the CEO is maintaining a sense of unflinching faith in the product's ability to succeed on its own merits -- even if convincing users to actually give the thing a shot will be an uphill battle.
We sat down with Rathakrishnan the night of his company's big unveiling to discuss the mistakes of the JooJoo, the importance of the Grid OS and why he believes that Fusion Garage deserves that second chance.
Continue reading The Engadget Interview: Fusion Garage's Chandra Rathakrishnan
The Engadget Interview: Fusion Garage's Chandra Rathakrishnan originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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