Fusion Garage vs iPad, New Partnership with Mobile Player in SEA and New Funding Round
CEO of Fusion Garage, Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan seemed optimistic and confident when I met him earlier today to chat. Apart from mentioning briefly about the JooJoo having a screen size that is 30% bigger than the iPad’s; the JooJoo having a camera…it was almost he was pre-empting the question that all of us have at the back of our minds: how will JooJoo fare against mighty Apple’s iPad?
Latest: OEM partner revealed.
Competition?
Chandra of course acknowledged that the iPad is a competitor to JooJoo but kept it at that. Touting JooJoo’s larger screen size and faster loading time, he’s confident that the JooJoo will do well. When probed further, he did indirectly thank Apple for helping open up this tablet market more.
No doubt.
Though this market is hardly new, with many “types” of tablet in the market. Specialised ebook readers like the Kindle and Nook have already gotten avid followers. Devices like the iPad and the JooJoo are different in that they are focused on more than just e-reading.
But he does have a point. Apple’s marketing blitz is bound to reach more people – something Amazon and Barnes & Noble lack.
Fusion Garage has already opened pre-sales of the JooJoo, but only in the US. On this, he said that they have already gotten significant pre-sales, but refused to divulge any numbers. (Of course.) According to Chandra, with the announcement and launch of the iPad, pre-sales of JooJoo has gone UP. Hmm.
If that is true, then it could possibly mean that people have been waiting for the launch of the iPad to compare the features of the iPad versus the JooJoo.
Don’t be too happy yet for Fusion Garage though. Having pre-sales of the JooJoo go up doesn’t mean much by itself. There could still be a significant number of people who did compare JooJoo and iPad only to choose the iPad.
We hope that for Fusion Garage’s sake, that’s not true.
For Apple’s sake, we hope that is true.
New Partnership With Mobile Player, Manufacturing Cost Taken Care Of
Sometime this week, Fusion Garage will announce a new partnership with a major mobile phone player who has “significant” market share in Southeast Asia. No clues as to who this partner might be. Market leader, Nokia; 2nd place Motorola or other players like Samsung?
According to Chandra, while Fusion Garage is still engaging an OEM in Taiwan, this new partner will actually take care of the manufacturing cost of the JooJoo. In return, Fusion Garage will pay “royalties” to this partner.
I found the word “royalties” used as highly interesting as royalties are usually paid to someone who owns the intellectual property. In this case, it seems a bit odd that Fusion Garage will be paying royalties to this mobile phone partner. Perhaps the press release coming out this week will clear up the air.
Fusion Garage Raises Funds
On another note, Chandra mentioned that they will be announcing a new funding round raised. The total amount is less than USD 10 million. No word yet on who the investors are.
Looks like a lot of juicy news coming to us this week. Stay tuned!
Missed out on what happened before the JooJoo? Check out here, here [podcast], here and here.
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