Is the CrunchPad - JooJoo Battle For Real?

08.12.2009
Maybe it was just 's way of getting his name off a project whose final outcome was going to be a dog?

The bowser in question being Arrington's CrunchPad tablet computer, that came in at a mere 250 percent of the selling price originally promised.

Fusion Garage, Arrington's former partner, Monday said it has . But, at $499, the much-storied device is effectively dead-on-arrival. (Last week, it was ).

As a $200 tablet computer, which is what Arrington initially said he was building, the device was interesting mostly because of low price. It didn't seem likely that Arrington--or anyone--could build such a device and the skeptics turned out to be right.

And there may be lawyers ahead.

Arrington, himself an attorney, claims his TechCrunch blog owns rights to the JooJoo and contributed technology and resources. He's threatened to sue Fusion Garage for cutting him out of the deal. Nasty break-ups are not auspicious starts for new products. Unless, of course, they are part of the plan.