Higher Than Expected Production Costs May Delay CrunchPad
Posted on November 8, 2009
The CrunchPad developed by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington had a lot of buzz going it for it when the prototype was announced earlier this year. The gadget even made it onto Popular Mechanic's 2009 brilliant product list.
Business Insider recently reported earlier this week that the production of the CrunchPad could be delayed because of higher than expected production costs. Wired says Michael Arrington said the CrunchPad would be out this year "for sure" earlier this year but a 2009 release now appears unlikely.
Arrington has said earlier the CrunchPad will be ready this year "for sure." But the device has already missed a number of deadlines. It was last expected at the end of July or early August.Arrington first wrote about the idea of a touchscreen tablet in June last year. He talked of a touchscreen device that would run Firefox and maybe Skype on top of a Linux kernel. The tablet would have low-end hardware - a power button, a headphone jack, a built-in camera for video, speakers and a microphone. It would come with Wi-Fi, 512 MB of memory, a 4-GB solid-state hard drive and no keyboard. All this for a promised price tag of $200.
GigaOm writes that development costs may push the CrunchPad price to the $400 mark or beyond which makes it less attractive against the Apple Tablet that is rumored to launch in 2010. The interest in the CrunchPad was primarily due to hopes that it would be a low-priced tablet.
Here's a video demonstrating the upcoming device.