CrunchPad Tablet Project Implodes

Posted 11/30/2009 at 2:08pm | by Bart Salisbury

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One day we’re going to see a tablet PC. But that day just got pushed back with the official demise of the CrunchPad. In a tale of intrigue and woe, Michael Arrington, the man behind the machine, tells us investors have unceremoniously pulled the plug on the project--as far as his involvement is concerned--and have left the fate of this particular tablet device dangling in the wind.

According to Arrington, the CEO of Arrington’s partner, Chandra Rathakrishnan, told him, by email, three days before the CrunchPad’s coming out party, that his investors were pulling out their support, and that Arrington and his crew would no longer be associated with the project. The project itself wasn’t necessarily dead, but in a Machiavellian move by Rathakrishnan, it would be turned over to Fusion Garage, the group that has been working with Arrington on the latest revision, Prototype C, of the CrunchPad.

What happens next in the saga is unclear. Arrington, who is “completely perplexed as to what happened,” maintains the project “self destructed over nothing more than greed, jealousy and miscommunication.” And that the “legal system will work it all out over time.” This suggests that further development on the CrunchPad, in whatever reincarnation, will be on hold for some time to come.

Image Credit: TechCrunch