14 DAY TRIAL // While the beginning of last year was all about netbooks, it appears that the industry is moving increasingly faster towards the adoption of a new category, namely that of media tablets. Following the much-anticipated release of Apple's iPad, a number of industry players are rallying up their product lines to provide consumers with a choice for a new, ultraportable device. Such is the case with the JooJoo Internet Tablet, which had its share of ups and downs but will finally become available to consumers, according to a recent announcement from Fusion Garage.
“This is landscape changing manufacturing agreement in the CE hardware market in much the same way Dell changed the PC business model with its direct to consumer sales approach back in the 1990s,” said Fusion Garage Founder and CEO, Chandrasekar (Chandra) Rathakrishnan. “CSL’s confidence in JooJoo and strategic investment enables us to concentrate on the expansion of our organization, software development and, ultimately, building a world class CE company.”
While no specific details were provided on the bits and pieces that make up the Fusion Garage's JooJoo tablet, it's expected that the 12-inch device will provide consumers with full Flash support at launch. In addition, the tablet will provide support for HD flash, once the Adobe Flash 10.1 is officially released. Unfortunately, the other technical details of the new tablet are yet to be made official.
At 12-inch, the JooJoo Tablet is noticeably larger than what Apple revealed last month with their 9.7-inch iPad, while also offering support for Flash. According to available details, the new tablet will be available for US$499, the same as the iPad, but without the marketing power of the Cupertino, California-based systems vendor. In order to get the product to market, Fusion Garage CEO revealed that they would be working with Malaysia's largest OEM, CSL Group, which would cover the tablet's manufacturing costs and get part of the revenues. The tablet is ready to begin shipping next month, according to its manufacturer, Fusion Garage.