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TechCrunch Tablet Update: Prototype B
- sdfx 18y agoFor me, it all comes down to price. I think a lot of people might consider it if it costs 200$, whether they "need" it or not (cf. the netbook effect). For 300$ and above I'm not so shure.
- mixmax 18y agoLooks like they might actually pull it off.. I didn't expect that, it certainly deserves some respect.
- jedc 18y agoVery true. That's a pretty strong statement for Techcrunch; they could go from a one-man blog to a blog/event and now hardware "empire" in just 4-5 years. Even if the tablet is crap, that's quite an accomplishment.
- axod 18y agoThere's a few others that have found success with similar methods: 1. Build a blog, get large readership, convince them you're *awesome*! 2. Release reasonable product 3. Sell to blog readership
- mixmax 18y agoVery clever businessmodel.
- dangoldin 18y agoCan you provide some examples? I'm curious.
- nuclear_eclipse 18y agoAny blogger who has published a book of their "best" blog entries.
- Timothee 18y agoI would say 37signals and FogCreek/Joel On Software. I was thinking about the same thing when reading the comments on TechCrunch: there is a big following that would buy it in big part because it's from TechCrunch. Or let's say that, in all these cases, the blogs are used as a great advertising platform. You can't blame them, building a following is hard work too.
- dangoldin 18y agoAh thanks. I was in the mindset of a hardware product.
- llimllib 18y agomany webcomics make money off t-shirts, books, etc etc with a similar model.
- Silentio 18y agoNot exactly in the tech product area, but Wil Wheaton has spun his relative fame from Star Trek into a widely read blog, and then a couple of books, and speaking appearances, and other writing for the LA Times, Suicide Girls, various comic books, etc. Through is blog/twitter he's managed to associate himself with all things "geek" and found an audience who will buy his work.
- bprater 18y agoIt's one thing to build a prototype. It's an entirely different ballgame to put a prototype into production. Someone has to print out boards, solder stuff on the boards, burn an OS on a drive, order parts from suppliers, and have a rigerous testing program. Then you need to package up these puppies in pretty boxes and get them shipped out. Oh, don't forget a crew of folks to man phones and deal with new orders and support issues. Don't forget the salespeople you'll need to get these into the hands of big suppliers. Prototypes ain't hard. (More accurately: they tend to be inexpensive and you can fit everything you need into your two-car garage.) It's the business model that wraps around it that gets expensive and time-consuming. Best of luck though to the crew. I like to see new competitors. It pushes everyone's game up.
- gravitycop 18y agoMore: Documentation has to be written. Then there are legal fees, and perhaps an entire permanent legal department. Regulatory fees must be paid. Taxes must be paid. Tooling costs. Electricity costs. Insurance costs. Advertising costs.
- joeyo 18y agoWhile all this is true, the process of moving from a prototype into production is a more or less solved problem. For example, there are a lot of companies that one can outsource the actual pick-and-place, assembly and packing to. The same goes for support and sales, I'd imagine. If the VC money is in place, this part should just be turning the crank.
- corentin 18y agoBy your logic, you could have outsourced the design as well.
- Prrometheus 18y agoDesign is less of a commodity.
- markessien 18y agoIt's not going to work. The major problem I see is that we only have two arms - if both are holding the device, how do you input data into it. If you drop it on the table, then it's flat on the table, which is also uncomfortable to enter data into. You want something that leans towards you. What they need to do to make this work is: 1. Drop all the border around the touchscreen. Make the screen almost flush with the plastic around it 2. Use metal for the edges - like the macbook pro. Pay extreme attention to the external aesthetics 3. Make it smaller. One should be able to hold it comfortably with one hand and type with the other 4. Increase the size of the on-screen keyboard
- alaskamiller 18y agoHow much input would you need? Aside from chatting, just having access to RSS and typing in Wikipedia entries would be enough.
- markessien 18y agoI'd say about 30% of my interaction with the internet involves me sending data out. The other 70% is about reading stuff. The form factor of the tablet is not correct for reading, which is part of the point I'm trying to make. We have hundreds of years of experimentation with reading equipment, and there is a reason that books are a certain shape, size and for. It works. Why are they throwing all that out and coming up with a brand new form factor for something that is supposed to also be a reader?
- RK 18y agoThey could split the keyboard in a way that would make it thumb-able.
- markessien 18y agoWell, if they offer a small bluetooth keyboard as an accessory, then it would be okay.
- 18y ago
- richcollins 18y ago> Because the device skips the resource-sucking parts of the operating system and focuses on one application - the browser - very low end hardware can be used and still give users a desktop-like Internet browsing experience. I guess he never looks his Activity Monitor / Task Manager
- streety 18y agoI was thinking the same thing. I know firefox on vista can get up to 1Gb of ram without too much trouble. My understanding is that webkit is a little less resource hungry though. The article also says, "The software: currently we’re running a full install of Ubuntu Linux on the prototype with a custom Webkit browser." Sounds as though they are needlessly limiting themselves in the marketing spiel.
- axod 18y agoI don't understand why people would want this over a netbook. Having a screen flat on your lap could make things pretty uncomfortable. Whilst holding it in one hand while you type with the other could be equally irritating. Might be nice to mount on the wall though, for example in the kitchen so you can look up recipes while you cook.
- iamdave 18y agoWell I could be wrong but it looks like in one of those screenshots it has a USB port; what's stopping someone from just getting a keyboard and using it?
- tsetse-fly 18y agoYes, the prototype clearly has USB, ethernet, and VGA. Realistically, though, why would anyone bother to plug a keyboard into this thing? Why wouldn't you just use your laptop or desktop?
- paul7986 18y agoThat's cool if it has VGA I could charge it and then at same time have it connected to my LCD TV to watch Internet TV. Use wireless handheld mouse for remote.
- tsetse-fly 18y agoI think VGA is only there for prototyping purposes. This tablet probably doesn't have the power to output a very good resolution or decode high quality video for your LCD TV. You're better off getting a cheap computer and sticking MythTV on it.
- RK 18y agoMy Eee PC 701 outputs at full 1360 x 768 on my 720p LCD TV. I can't imagine this tablet having less "power" than the Eee PC 701. On the other hand, I would be a little surprised if the final version did have VGA out.
- czcar 18y agoi think it will work (if not in this iteration then another), it does one thing, and hopefully well. it allows the owner to consume information. which is one of the main tenets of the internet.
- czcar 18y agothis would be a killer device for university students aswell, i would love being able to carry this to class vs 4 different massive textbooks, and imagine how much more useful a chemistry/finance etc textbook would be if every page was interactive, imagine quick referencing and word definition
- streety 18y agoEverything you've described could be done with a standard laptop and you wouldn't need to make all the sacrifices.
- tsetse-fly 18y agoIt's a cool toy, but I really can't imagine how/where I would use it in-place of my laptop. What are some use cases?
- froo 18y agoGive it a stand and use in the kitchen for recipes etc while cooking? Perhaps as an entry level product for people who don't know how to use a mouse but might want to use the internet. A basis for some kind of learning device for younger kids (if they get it more robust that is).
- tsetse-fly 18y agoSeems like an expensive recipe catalog. I don't think it's a very good idea to use electronics while you're cooking. Getting grease on anything that can't be scrubbed under running water is very irritating. There's a more durable solution to this: paper. You don't have to worry about washing your hands before touching it and if you splatter food on it then it's disposable.
- jonknee 18y agoI use my netbook for recipes all the time. It's on the bar, I don't keep it next to the fryer--no grease issues. That said, I think the netbook works better than this tablet, it has a built-in stand and storage so I keep commonly used recipes on it. I have been baking quite a bit lately so recipes actually come in handy.
- ikor 18y agoIt reminds me UMPC thing from MSFT, but cheaper.
- matthewking 18y agoYou've got to love the LEGO stand they've made for it..
- noonespecial 18y agoExcellent. Another candidate to embed in my wall near light switches to control my X10 stuff. I'm still rooting for the Picwing guys though.
- greyman 18y agoIt doesn't look bad, but Asus will come with a new generation of their EEE netbooks this year, which could be folded to tablet pc with multitouch (Eee PC T91). So for a few more bucks I will get superset of Crunchpad with much more functions (normal netbook, keyboard, gps, tv receiver etc).
- guruz 18y agoyou will almost always get more for a few more bucks. the question is if you want/need more.
- ryanwaggoner 18y agoIf my damn iPhone would just get flash already, I wouldn't have much need for something like this.
- TweedHeads 18y agoI like this one better: http://www.ianmikutel.com/storage/CrunchPad.jpg http://www.ianmikutel.com/storage/CrunchPad.jpg
- ph0rque 18y agoDidn't the original idea post mention that they will make the tablet open-source?
- jwesley 18y agoI'm sure Big Mike would have no problem going back on that if it looks like this thing could make a mint.
- jodrellblank 18y agoYour comment is nothing but an ad-hom. Do you have any evidence to support that he might?
- lapenne 18y agoThis is the sort of stuff I would be excepeting out of YCombinator startups. Instead we got mostly lame web 2.0 websites with no clear business model. Okay, that was a bit harsh, but still - I think most of the YCombinator applicants don't have enough ambition and the ideas are too focused on the web 2.0 world.
- jonknee 18y agoHard to expect innovative hardware with only a couple grand in funding.
- vaksel 18y agothats because coding up a site doesn't take as much effort. Here you'd need to figure out how to build it, then find a factory to build it, then figure out how to sell it to retailers, then figure out shipping etc etc
- immad 18y agopicwing.com: I know its different but it has similar end goals given time. edit: Why don't you apply to YC with this idea if you can execute it :P
- antidaily 18y agoIs this really that innovative? for $299, I can get a Dell mini 9 or countless other netbooks (some of which can be hacked to run OSX). In terms of providing value, give me a web 2.0 tool that helps my business or helps me lose weight or whatever... over this thing.
- BenS 18y agoI'd like to see this running android.
- vaksel 18y agoI sure hope they don't call it the Techcrunch Tablet...talk about a crappy boring name. They need to call it Crunchpad...at least that has a cool sound, and has a hint of Apple like branding. Hell you can see that it's a great name, because in the comments half the people are already calling it a Crunchpad.
- vlad 18y agoThey need to make sure they have a very low-power mode. When the tablet is placed in the stand, it should both charge as well as serve as a digital photo frame automatically.