CrunchPad, We Hardly Knew Ye

"Mostly though I'm just sad. I never envisioned the CrunchPad as a huge business. I just wanted a tablet computer that I could use to consume the Internet while sitting on a couch. I've always pushed to open source all or parts of the project. So this isn't really about money. It was about the thrill of building something with a team that had the same vision. Now that's going to be impossible."

The news of the CrunchPad's death comes a few weeks after rumors of...the CrunchPad's death. But according to Arrington's post, the project began to fall apart after the rumors of early November appeared, for a different set of reasons. (The stories had the CrunchPad being too costly to manufacture to be sold at a reasonable price.)

Arrington has always said that the CrunchPad sprung from his own desire to have a "dead simple" tablet he could use to get online from his couch. I get his desire. Well, mostly: I've never been entirely clear why the CrunchPad would be a better couch computer than a more typical, versatile cheap portable computer. (I've owned a bunch of my own personal CrunchPads over the years -- they've just been clamshell-shaped, had keyboards, run Windows, and come from companies such as Apple, Asus, and Sony.)

If the CrunchPad was really as close to being ready for prime time as Arrington says -- he writes that its makers were about to start taking orders -- you gotta think there's a decent chance that it's not really dead -- only resting. Would you buy a CrunchPad, or something vaguely like a CrunchPad, if it were to come to market?