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Fusion Garage Going After Lower-Price Tablet Market
nk497 writes "Fusion Garage has dropped the price of its follow-up to the JooJoo tablet, cutting the Grid10's price by $200 to $299 in the US and £259 in the UK. Outspoken CEO Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan has clearly been following the HP TouchPad fire sale, and noticed the importance of price when it comes to taking on Apple's iPad. He said there's no point in buying 'a poor carbon copy' of the Apple tablet for the same price. 'At $499, why would you buy — it's like going to China and buying a [fake] Louis Vuitton bag, at the same price as the real Louis Vuitton bags. It doesn't make sense, when you know it's a rip-off product,' he said."
Isn't this the same guy and company that ripped off the CrunchPad from Michael Arrington?
I think the court case is proceeding.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JooJoo
After that sold only a few hundred units, they ditched the name and came out with a new tablet. The UI seems interesting, but I don't think this is going to sell many units.
This space for rent.
I would have had first post if this weren't a tablet. I'm lying: it's a laptop.
...Did he just say *his* product was a "poor carbon copy" and a "rip-off"?
"Pricing is also a very important factor. At $499, why would you buy - it's like going to China and buying a [fake] Louis Vuitton bag, at the same price as the real Louis Vuitton bags. It doesn't make sense, when you know it's a rip-off product," he said.
Wait, what did he just say about his product? That's it's a fake iPad and/or a rip-off?
Shouldn't you say more neutral or positive things about your own products? Maybe something like "Due to lower than expected manufacturing costs, we're lowering the price on the Grid10 to $299."
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Did he just claim that every tablet in the world, his own included, is "a rip-off product", to quote the quote?
Has Apple so completely won the mind-share fight that every tablet product, no matter how technically distinctive, is an iPad clone?
The RDF is strong with this one.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
I would rephrase that to "... and noticed the importance of price when it comes to taking on ANYTHING"
He's got a point. If you're buying a rip-off product, you should only pay half the real price.
"going to China and buying a [fake] Louis Vuitton bag, at the same price as the real Louis Vuitton bags"
No surprise: this is what people have been saying for years. Apple didn't create the tablet, but they created the tablet _market_, and anyone who can afford it is going to buy the real thing. The only people buying non-iPad tablets are those who can't afford the iPad. This gives Apple tremendous market clout: it gets to sit at the top and make a profit, while everybody else scrambles for table scraps and attempts to sell knock off products for lower cost - which means invariably having less capable hardware.
The tablet war is just as over as the desktop PC war was in about 1986 - sure there were other "alternatives" (Atari STs, Amigas, whatever) but they were dead platforms still twitching. The market had spoken, it's just that the people buying those other platforms didn't realize it yet. It's just that way now with iPads: the market has spoken, and it wants the iPad. Anybody else is going to have a rough ride: all you can do is attempt to sell a much lower end product without the compelling advantages that draw people to buy iPads.
A non-Apple branded pad is never going to get the same perceived envy from onlookers which is why a lot of the people are willing to part with the additional cash...people need the self-esteem boost.
Buying a fake Rolex impersonates a real Rolex while buying a Seiko does not. It's not important that you know it's fake...it's that others think it's real.
The off-brand pad will never have the allure to the masses of the iPad. In fact...it will probably have less allure than an Apple branded fake.
So i guess this is why he/she gets paid the big bucks...
the use of common sense is quite fitting .. . if only it were harnessed more often
A no-name company with a skeevy CEO, a custom OS instead of Android or something more well-supported? Maybe at $100, or possibly even $200. But once you get into the $300 range, you've moved beyond the impulse buy and well into the realm where I want a name-brand reputable company backing it--and an OS that I know is and will be supported.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Give me a $100 tablet and I'll buy one. Just have it run GNU/Linux (no OS fee) and require an SD card rather than an internal hard drive. Maybe have it be relatively cheap/slow compared to competitors, using older technology that is presumably cheaper to use. I'm not going to pay $300 for something which not only has a most-likely-shitty proprietary OS, a small (but internal) hard drive, and "iPad ripoff" quality.
Isn't that the point of capitalism? If I need a car I do not have to have a BMW or Porsche. A Hyundai is fine and much better on my wallet. This is the same principle.
Why should we condemn Fusion Garage if they they do it cheaper? Less press = more supply and marketshare. Economics 101
http://saveie6.com/
For what it's worth, it's now easier in China to buy real Louis Vuitton bags than fakes. Several years ago, the fake markets were wide open and real LV stores were nonexistent. However, since the Great Cleanup of 2008 (Olympic year), the fake markets have been largely shut down. Real LV stores have opened legitimate operations. There's one within two miles of my house, and believe me, it's real. After being in factory business for a while, you can tell a real from a fake by the quality of materials, the stitching, etc. Sort of like how geeks can tell a phishing email right away by how it sounds, simply by virtue of receiving so many phishing emails, as opposed to the Great Unwashed Morons of Middle America who actually think there is a Nigerian prince on the other end of the connection. What morons! Can you believe the Constitution permits these people to vote! "Yeah, I sent my life savings to a person who contacted me by email, but I still maintain my political enfranchisement"...puh-LEEZ! We need an intelligence test before allowing voting...but I digress.
The fact is that legitimate LV shops have opened up, and the fake shops have been shut down the the power of the government. That's the nice thing about living in China, you really do have a one-to-one relationship with the government you live under, rather than the "laissez-faire" non-relationship that Americans have with their federal government. I imagine that it must be the same in other civilized countries like Europe, even though I've never been there.
Funny thing is, the elimination of the fakes is driving innovation in the local market. Now that everyone can't get an LV bag for $50, local brands are appearing to fill the gap between "crap no-name bag" and "luxury genuine foreign brand". Mr. Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan is operating on a three-year-old dead meme. I'm not saying that LV fakes aren't available, I'm saying that they're not readily available in fake markets like they were a few years ago. This opens everything for the local innovators (those expressly given permits by the government to innovate, of course). Chinese brands are not well-known because local merchants always default to making fakes - a dumb idea intended to maximize corporate profits on the backs of the workers. With the wise move by the government (which, in China, is staffed by scientists, engineers, and other no-bullshit-style atheists) to permanently close the fake markets, the intended consequences are to make independent innovation a reality. With any luck, we can only hope that American corporate CEOs will find themselves regulated in the same way. Imagine how better America would be if the government were run by scientists and engineers, and nutso religion-mongers were not allowed to hold office, much less vote?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
he is simply saying it.
Far too many pick up an iPad competitor and immediately start thinking, if it costs the same why not just buy the iPad. I agree his choice of words isn't the greatest.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
...I feel bad these suckers who are lining up to buy "a cheap carbon copy".
'At $499, why would you buy — it's like going to China and buying a [fake] Louis Vuitton bag, at the same price as the real Louis Vuitton bags. It doesn't make sense, when you know it's a rip-off product,' he said."
This statement makes no sense.
The ONLY reason to buy a louis vuitton bag for $500 is to show off to other people (especially possible dating partners) that you have the money to buy one, or you're romantically involved with someone who can afford it. On the scale of trashiness, its a bit above simply waving cash around, but not much above it. Humorously, it used to mean you had the money, but for a couple decades now it merely means you're willing to go into debt, which is not quite the same level of sex appeal as having the cash.
Anyway, as long as its well known that options A B or C all cost $500, all adequately serve the purpose of advertising that you spent the money. They could increase sales dramatically by engraving $500 on the "fake" bags or "fake" tablet case.
In a way, spending an ipad's worth of money on a bad copy, is even better, because it proves you can afford to buy something useless. Its one thing to have the dough to make a capital purchase for something that improves your life like an ipad. But you must really be loaded with money (or debt) if you are willing to buy something useless for about the same price.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
I like to buy my iPad knock offs from local dealers.
Why the hell are we (Brits) being charged so much for this overpriced pile of egoism? I agree with "wall0645": "Give me a £63.29 ($100) tablet and I'll buy one".
Aww.. Does somebody disagree with your vision of the world?
Fanboy.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
In other news, I'm going to sell my entire stock of pink unicorns for fifty cents each.
And I have as many pink unicorns as FusionGarage has $200 tablets that don't 100% suck.
OSS is more than a product sold on the shelf.
sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
Sorry, I caught the headline of this story across my RSS feeder widget on my Android phone. I have similar widgets on my Android tablet. Knock on them all you want, but it's the one thing that the iPhone users I know would like to have (instead of a screen full of program icons).
I can appreciate what Apple has created, but there have been a couple things created outside of Cupertino.
Also of note, I was wondering how a CEO can get away with talking down his products and then I saw that Fusion Garage is privately funded and note publicly owned.
When an android tablet maker can get comparable specs to an iPad for $199 they'll sell like mad. Anything higher and they have a minimal seller, period.
I swore to never buy an Apple product, lo and behold I ended up with an iPad 2. Ultimately, the aspect ratio of the Android horde was the deal breaker, the only one to successfully tempt me has been the Tab 10. The iPad 2 is smooth, sleek, works great, and most importantly works in portrait and landscape mode (I find myself using it in portrait more than landscape, since most web pages are vertical.) But the iPad 2 is not "magically better" than the other tablets. Having fiddled around with the Tab 10, I can say it's just as solid of an experience as an iPad 2. The problem is mentality. People have this strange idea in their head that Apple products are "the best" simply because of a logo. And honestly, the iPad 2 is top notch, and will stay top notch, until other designers are willing to go balls-to-the-wall and compete on equal grounds. That means getting over the "Apple is better by default" mentality. And this CEO literally just said "The iPad 2 is better than our product!" Which is even stupider than Motorola overpricing the Xoom.
"Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad." [Ecclesiastes 7:3]
We need an intelligence test before allowing voting
The United States tried that once. It was outlawed after it was discovered that southern states were giving out more difficult tests to black people than to white people.
Why would the rip off Louis Vuitton bag be any worse that the real thing? There are good knock offs and bad ones. Some of those rip off items come off the same assembly line as the real ones.
4" smartphone unlock costs $600
10.1" tablet costs $300
wtf? size doesn't matter or what?
why don't these idiot Android manufacturers make 4" PMP (like iPod Touch) for $200 so that android developer, like myself, do not have to buy that ridiculuous 4" smartphone unlock for $600. I know Sony will be releasing PMP, Samsung Galaxy Player too. But that is SOON. NOT NOW. everybody is concentrating on build tablet for a marginal profit where they should be concentrating building an android PMP for a bigger profit. a bunch of idiots.
since when is $299 = £259?!!
fucking ripoff.
He realizes that there's no competition with a name brand product at the same retail price? If he [they] would get off their yuppie lifestyles then maybe they could pull more profits in understanding what a fair price to average consumers are considered to be.
Apple created the multitouch tablet market, and is still in the honeymoon, but it is soon going to be no different from iOS vs. Android on smartphones. They are still riding on the first mover advantage. There are tons of other big-name players getting into the game, and sooner or later one of these is going to be a big hit. The public is fickle. In 2008 Apple owned the touchscreen smartphone market, but now they are second in both sales and installed base. The tablet market is going to do the same thing, most likely. The one difference might be that the iPhone got hurt by Apple's exclusive contract with ATT - if all carriers had access to the iPhone from the start, Android might not yet have surpassed it.
The corners need to be rounded.
The iPad is great but costly. Androids in general have been sluggish in UI response and are somehow always behind the curve of the latest Android OS because the tablet makers don't want to bother with building an update for it. Too many tablet makers jumped on the ship of building an imitation iPad, few actually built a worthwhile tablet.
What I do want to use such knock-off tablets for is for home control - mount the thing against the wall or in your shower for intermediate touch screen access. Can't justify that at $500+ but I could definitely do it at $100-200. The electronics should be cheap enough, most of them are completely plastic and have shitty backlighting, are missing Bluetooth, 802.11n WiFi and all the neat stuff that would make them expensive.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Did somebody just figure out that selling a copy for less than the original is important for its sales success? Quick! Call Bloomberg!
http://dilbert.com/2010-12-13
Sorry, but the ipad is just not a big deal, and is overpriced. It's incorrect to say that every tablet but the ipad is some kind of "rip-off" of the ipad. Not true at all. However, the ipad is overpriced, so making a tablet and pricing it as high as the ipad is going to lead to low sales.
He essentially just stated the obvious, that it's a ripoff product, but now it's being offered at a lower price. I think consumer's hesitation with Android tablets has more to do with the ripoff nature of it than just the price. You'll always be able to pull in some fools just on price, but in the end "it's not an iPad" will still be true.
Fusion Garage worked with Arringon to produce CrunchPad. Then betrayed Arrington:
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/30/crunchpad-end/