4 ms·

Fusion Garage's website goes dark

31 points by kposehn 15y ago

nikcub 15y ago
If you don't know, Fusion Garage is the company we were working with on the Crunchpad: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crunchpad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crunchpad they went off on their own, released the JooJoo and then the Grid10 tablet, and then things ended in a way nobody expected. There is still an ongoing lawsuit between Techcrunch and Fusion Garage (I have no idea what happens to that now, a lot of money was spent on lawyers and the trial was scheduled for next year) They have taken fully paid-up pre-orders for the Grid10 tablet, so those customers are out now (this is why Paypal doesn't allow pre-orders). I also feel for some of the employees who were genuinely smart and good people.
- kposehn 15y ago
  Interesting, thanks for commenting about it. If you don't mind, any thoughts on the company or the product?
  - nikcub 15y ago
    I sniffed out that Fusion Garage were more talk than substance when I went to Singapore to see them the first time. I wrote an email, which is now part of the legal case, warning about it. The entire story is interesting and funny, I will write it up at some point (not soon). The product was ok, you can see the pictures of the last prototype we worked on here: http://nikcub.appspot.com/posts/crunchpad-proof-obviousness-in-ipad-design http://nikcub.appspot.com/posts/crunchpad-proof-obviousness-... It takes a long time to polish a hardware product to the point that it is ready for mass market. FG rushed the product out, so it didn't surprise me that it wasn't well received. But apparently there are a loyal group of hobbyists who like the JooJoo If the partnership persisted, we would have likely switched to an ARM based board and chipset after the first batch of orders. The Intel Atom stuff didn't live up to expectations. I think we could have built something really nice and useful.
prawn 15y ago
"Update: We have a comment from Fusion Garage's PR agency: 'Unfortunately, none of our efforts have resulted in any communication from the company to the customers. Given all of this, we don't have any other choice but to cease working with FG effective tomorrow.'"
- prodigal_erik 15y ago
  I don't think I've ever seen public relations people burn a bridge like that. They must be annoyed.
  - dwynings 15y ago
    FG probably owes them money too.
  - prawn 15y ago
    Bad for them to be seen to be involved with an out-of-control client. If they're also unlikely to be paid, the bridge might not be worth a whole lot.
andrewfelix 15y ago
Why did these guys bite off more than they could chew? They had already differentiated themselves with some great hardware. The modified Android OS seemed completely unnecessary. Even big tablet manufactures like ASUS barely modify the standard Android OS.
- forensic 15y ago
  Lots of companies die because of bad strategic decisions. These guys were positioned to become millionaires or to make nothing and they made some bad strategic calls and got the nothing. Good example of a company with good tech, good timing, and a good idea that fails because of business decisions. This is the kind of case where it seems a Harvard MBA could have made all the difference.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
ChuckMcM 15y ago
I've got a Touch Book [1] from AlwaysInnovating. Those guys are like energizer bunnies somehow they keep on going. Given the way the whole TC/FG thing came off and exploded I am not too surprised about them going dark. One of the quotes Scott McNealy made at Sun has stuck with me over the years, he said "Running a company is like running a gauntlet of windows that are slamming shut. Trip just once, and the window can slam shut before you pass it." That really resonated with me and Sun lived with the mindset that tripping was death. The tablet market has had some early folks in it, but they have not been able to use their small size to run faster than the big guys. And Apple of course threw everyone a curve ball. [1] http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/home/index.htm http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/home/index.htm
- sown 15y ago
  Looks neat. What's the battery life like? can I put a Clear dongle (http://www.clear.com/ http://www.clear.com/) in it?
  - ChuckMcM 15y ago
    No reason why you couldn't that I can see. If you have Android or Linux drivers for it (ARM). I found (find? since I still have it) pretty slow with respect to UI actions and so its not something I could adopt as an everyday tablet but the keyboard thing was pretty cool (and still is). However with the keyboard attached its effectively an ARM based laptop.
funkah 15y ago
The whole thing was a sad farce from the start, really. I feel bad for the people who were sincerely anticipating this device, hanging out on forums about it and everything.

31 points by kposehn 15y ago

If you don't know, Fusion Garage is the company we were working with on the Crunchpad: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crunchpad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crunchpad they went off on their own, released the JooJoo and then the Grid10 tablet, and then things ended in a way nobody expected. There is still an ongoing lawsuit between Techcrunch and Fusion Garage (I have no idea what happens to that now, a lot of money was spent on lawyers and the trial was scheduled for next year) They have taken fully paid-up pre-orders for the Grid10 tablet, so those customers are out now (this is why Paypal doesn't allow pre-orders). I also feel for some of the employees who were genuinely smart and good people.

kposehn 15y ago
Interesting, thanks for commenting about it. If you don't mind, any thoughts on the company or the product?
- nikcub 15y ago
  I sniffed out that Fusion Garage were more talk than substance when I went to Singapore to see them the first time. I wrote an email, which is now part of the legal case, warning about it. The entire story is interesting and funny, I will write it up at some point (not soon). The product was ok, you can see the pictures of the last prototype we worked on here: http://nikcub.appspot.com/posts/crunchpad-proof-obviousness-in-ipad-design http://nikcub.appspot.com/posts/crunchpad-proof-obviousness-... It takes a long time to polish a hardware product to the point that it is ready for mass market. FG rushed the product out, so it didn't surprise me that it wasn't well received. But apparently there are a loyal group of hobbyists who like the JooJoo If the partnership persisted, we would have likely switched to an ARM based board and chipset after the first batch of orders. The Intel Atom stuff didn't live up to expectations. I think we could have built something really nice and useful.

prawn 15y ago

"Update: We have a comment from Fusion Garage's PR agency: 'Unfortunately, none of our efforts have resulted in any communication from the company to the customers. Given all of this, we don't have any other choice but to cease working with FG effective tomorrow.'"

prodigal_erik 15y ago
I don't think I've ever seen public relations people burn a bridge like that. They must be annoyed.
- dwynings 15y ago
  FG probably owes them money too.
- prawn 15y ago
  Bad for them to be seen to be involved with an out-of-control client. If they're also unlikely to be paid, the bridge might not be worth a whole lot.

andrewfelix 15y ago

Why did these guys bite off more than they could chew? They had already differentiated themselves with some great hardware. The modified Android OS seemed completely unnecessary. Even big tablet manufactures like ASUS barely modify the standard Android OS.

forensic 15y ago
Lots of companies die because of bad strategic decisions. These guys were positioned to become millionaires or to make nothing and they made some bad strategic calls and got the nothing. Good example of a company with good tech, good timing, and a good idea that fails because of business decisions. This is the kind of case where it seems a Harvard MBA could have made all the difference.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

ChuckMcM 15y ago

I've got a Touch Book [1] from AlwaysInnovating. Those guys are like energizer bunnies somehow they keep on going. Given the way the whole TC/FG thing came off and exploded I am not too surprised about them going dark. One of the quotes Scott McNealy made at Sun has stuck with me over the years, he said "Running a company is like running a gauntlet of windows that are slamming shut. Trip just once, and the window can slam shut before you pass it." That really resonated with me and Sun lived with the mindset that tripping was death. The tablet market has had some early folks in it, but they have not been able to use their small size to run faster than the big guys. And Apple of course threw everyone a curve ball. [1] http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/home/index.htm http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/home/index.htm

sown 15y ago
Looks neat. What's the battery life like? can I put a Clear dongle (http://www.clear.com/ http://www.clear.com/) in it?
- ChuckMcM 15y ago
  No reason why you couldn't that I can see. If you have Android or Linux drivers for it (ARM). I found (find? since I still have it) pretty slow with respect to UI actions and so its not something I could adopt as an everyday tablet but the keyboard thing was pretty cool (and still is). However with the keyboard attached its effectively an ARM based laptop.

funkah 15y ago

The whole thing was a sad farce from the start, really. I feel bad for the people who were sincerely anticipating this device, hanging out on forums about it and everything.