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According to a phone interview with Venturebeat, the JooJoo tablet computer will begin shipping to pre-orders later this month, within the time promised by the company.  With all the hype behind the Apple iPad tablet, the timing could be perfect for Fusion Garage to launch the JooJoo as Apple has done the hard part of whipping potential customers into a frenzy for the next great thing.  The JooJoo is listed for sale at $499.

Revealed during the call is manufacturing assistance by a phone manufacturer in southeast Asia.  Though Fusion Garage refused to name the company, the move will reduce the high up-front costs of small run manufacturing in exchange for a royalty of each JooJoo sold.  This should help keep the company stable throughout the launch cycle.  Fusion Garage raised $3 million in first round funding and expects to announce a new round shortly.

When asked point blank about the JooJoo’s chances over the iPad, Fusion Garage CEO said, “t has a much larger screen, 12.1 inches instead of 9.7 inches. The resolution is 1368 by 768 pixels instead of 1024 by 768. There are an extra 300 pixels of length, so it’s 16:9 widescreen resolution instead of 4:3. Watching video on it is a joy. And the Web browsing experience is even better than the iPad, because of the size of the screen.”

JooJoo started as a partnership between Michael Arrington of TechCrunch and Fusion Garage.  The relationship has since deteriorated with both partners bringing legal claims against the other.  It is unclear if those claims will delay shipping to customers that have pre-ordered.  The pre-orders reportedly have surprised Fusion Garage.

The JooJoo won’t have an app store according to the interview, believe that the web can provide much of the content brought about by these applications.

Product page: [JooJoo]