Fusion Garage (of CrunchPad-Joo-Joo Fame) Drops Grid 10 Price by $200 - Only $200 More to Go

Some things just can’t die. Like the zillionth incarnation of what was formerly known as CrunchPad…. then after a messy divorce from TechCrunch became the Joo-Joo (sold a few dozen units), and now it’s back as the Grid 10. I have a funny history with this device.

I was a major advocate of the orginal CrunchPad concept, for a number of reasons:

revolutionary idea conceived at the pre-iPad age
great situatiational device
priced right: sub $300.

But as we know the CrunchPad never saw the daylight, instead we got the Joo-Joo, with major delay and way overpriced at $499, which I saw completely pointless. I wrote: So You Bought a JooJoo – How Will it be Serviced? But if course there was more than just servicing: lack of apps and that small trust issue:

Now, how can you expect the same from a no-name company with less known financial background and a lawsuit to deal with? The specs could be marvelous, but you have to ask yourself: who you will trust for service: Apple or JooJoo? And that’s why buying a JooJoo is a huge leap of faith.

Yes, in the meantime we entered the iPad-era. The Game has changed forever.

So imagine my shock when I saw positive writeups of yet-another-tablet by Fusion Garage: the Grid 10. For .. yes, you guessed right, for $499.

Oh, they have a phone too. Great, why not get two devices from such an established source with a stellar track record. All reviews focused on the device itself, completely ignoring the total unfeasibility of this market entry. I was shocked. Even more so as this appeared on the same day, when on the very same Techmeme page we saw this post: OuchPad: Best Buy Sitting on a Pile of Unsold HP Tablets.

I tend to “connect the dots” and did not want to belive my eyes the HP Touchpad fiasco and all the praise for the Grid 10 fit the same page. If HP, a major brand could not sell the often-praised, technically excellent WebOS tablet, mainly for two reasons: it’s neither iOS, nor Android, then what can we expect from a no-name entry to the same market?

Now, let’s be clear: Touchpad was a market fiasco, not a technical one. I already had a draft post in the works recommending the right price point for HP at $199 to establish market, then move up to $299. Yes, it did not make sense based on manufacturing costs, but you have to create a market in the bipolar, iOS and Android-dominated world.

But before I could publish, all hell broke lose at HP-land, and the rest is history. The panic sellout actually created a market for the TouchPad, at $99. That’s for a discontinued product. I still believe the proper “peace-time” pricepoint for these devices should have been $199-$299.

That brings us back to the Grid 10. Before even shipping the first unit, the cut the price by $200, from $499 to $299. It’s a good start. Now all it takes is another $200 cut, and at $99 they actually have a chance. Any price higher than that .. buyer beware.