Updated
A recent email sent by Fusion Garage to customers of its Joojoo tablets (via Uneasy Silence) tells us two things: One, the company apparently doesn’t know how to properly use the BCC field to hide email addresses, and two, it’s likely that it only sold 64 Joojoos.
[Update: A Fusion Garage spokesperson wrote the following message in the comments:
The email in question was sent by a temporary customer support employee to a select group of customers. These customers were selected for participation in an ongoing feedback program because they had previously contacted Fusion Garage with questions or suggestions. The list in no way reflects Fusion Garage’s entire customer base. Sales have continued to grow after the public release of the joojoo.]
We learned at the end of March that Fusion Garage only had 90 preorders for the tablet. 15 of those preorders were canceled, which means that since those court documents were published, another 11 preorders dropped out as well. And, of course, some who received a Joojoo may have returned it, and Fusion Garage may have included other email addresses in the BCC field for some reason.
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Fusion Garage famously rose into the spotlight when it split up with TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington and turned what was to be the CrunchPad tablet into the Joojoo. It worked hard to convince tech journalists that the Joojoo would still be a worthwhile tablet, but then Apple announced the iPad and all of a sudden nobody wanted to spend $500 on a first-generation device from an unproven company. After countless delays, it finally shipped the Joojoo to its handful of customers right around the launch of the iPad — erasing any early advantage the Joojoo might have had.
Moving forward, the Joojoo will have to compete with cheaper Android tablets and other entries like HP’s Slate running Windows. Unless Fusion Garage drops the price of the Joojoo drastically, it’s possible we won’t be seeing the device around for much longer.
