$5,000 Google Jamboard dies in 2024—cloud-based apps will stop working, too

Even extra Google merchandise are getting the ax this week. Next up is Google Jamboard, a $5,000 digital whiteboard (and its $600-a-year payment) and software program ecosystem marketed to colleges and companies. Google has a brand new publish detailing the “Next section of digital whiteboarding for Google Workspace,” and the longer term for Jamboard is that there isn’t a future. In “late 2024,” the entire challenge will shut down, and we do not simply imply the {hardware} will stop being on the market; the cloud-based apps will stop working, too.

Most folks most likely have not ever heard of Jamboard, however this was an enormous 55-inch, 4K touchscreen on a rolling stand that launched in 2016. Like most Google touchscreens, this ran Android with a locked-down, customized interface on high as a substitute of the standard telephone interface. The digital whiteboard may very well be drawn on utilizing the included stylus or your fingers, and it even got here with an enormous plastic “eraser” that might take away gadgets. The SoC was an Nvidia Jetson TX1 (a quad-core Cortex-A57 CPU connected to a beefy Maxwell GPU), and it had a built-in digicam, microphone, and audio system for video calls. There was HDMI enter and Google solid help, and it got here in whimsical colours like crimson, grey, and blue (it seems like Google was going for an iMac rainbow and stop midway).

Google’s secret sauce right here was that Jamboard was closely built-in with Google Workspace, so it might pull in gadgets from Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and all of your whiteboard work was saved in a filetype known as “Jams” in the standard Google storage. Like the opposite Workspace apps, this all labored stay over the Internet. People not in entrance of the touchscreen might launch the “Jamboard app” as a substitute, letting them get in on the whiteboard motion remotely, full with stay handwriting.

On the loss of life of its newest product, Google says, “We’re grateful to the shoppers, educators, college students, and companies who’ve used Jamboard since its launch in 2016. While Jamboard customers make up a small portion of our Workspace buyer base, we perceive that this modification will impression a few of you, and we’re dedicated to serving to you transition…” Yes, that is proper, “transition” is often not one thing you need to contemplate when an organization kills a {hardware} product, however the entire cloud system goes down, too, so all your current $5,000 whiteboards will quickly be ineffective and you will not be capable of open the cloud knowledge on different gadgets.

“Over the approaching months, we’ll present Jamboard app customers and admins clear paths to retain their Jamboard knowledge or migrate it,” Google tells customers in its weblog publish. The migration choices are all third-party competitor whiteboard apps—Figma’s FigJam, Lucid Software’s Lucidspark, and Miro. Google says you’ll be able to transfer your knowledge in “only a few clicks, effectively earlier than the Jamboard app winds down in late 2024.” Going ahead, Google says it has “determined to leverage our associate ecosystem for whiteboarding in Workspace,” which means exiting the whiteboard market, exhibiting customers the door, and telling them to take their knowledge with them.

You’ll nonetheless want a brand new touchscreen, which implies one other dear {hardware} buy for current Jamboard clients. Google appears to really feel significantly dangerous for the colleges that purchased into this, saying, “We will additionally work instantly with instructional establishments to compensate them for his or her Jamboard gadgets.“

Jamboard was a dear merchandise, however $5,000 was simply the tip of the iceberg. There was a $600 “annual administration and help payment,” plus subscriptions to Google Workspace for each consumer, plus an elective $1,350 for the rolling stand. A one-year complete with a single Workspace consumer is round $7,000. People typically ask a couple of recurring income stream when predicting what merchandise will stay and die, however even a $600-per-year payment connected to each sale wasn’t sufficient to maintain Jamboard operating.