Arrington on CrunchPad: "...big news on that, shortly."

Remember Mike Arrington's CrunchPad? Last June we were told it was nearly ready for launch and we'd know more in July. July came and went, then in August we got another update: the CrunchPad was coming in November (in fairness this update didn't come from Arrington).

November is half over and no CrunchPad hardware is on store shelves, but we have yet another update. Mike Arrington was on Steve Gillmor's 'Gillmore Gang' podcast and was asked what was up with the device. Arrington's response was that the CrunchPad "is actually steamrolling along," that rumors that components costs were too high were false, and that there "should be big news on that, shortly." He re-affirmed the $300-$400 price point, saying the device will cost in the high $200s to build and they're look for 'soft revenue' such as "a few dollars a year for the search bar."

Arrington says the CrunchPad won't compete with the widely rumored iTablet from Apple, saying that the Apple product would probably be 'better' but might cost twice as much (or even more) as the CrunchPad.

Back when we first started talking about this device it seemed pretty unique, but it feels like that window is closing. Microsoft's Courier, Spring Design's Alexa (well, the bottom half of it anyway) and most recently ICD's Vega all feel like they're pushing into the territory the CrunchPad wants to occupy. None of these devices have an official price or launch date, but then, neither does the CrunchPad.

Here's the episode of 'Gillmore Gang' in question, via Engadget. Skip to the 39 minute mark for the CrunchPad discussion.