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

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

Most individuals most likely have not ever heard of Jamboard, however this was a large 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 prime as a substitute of the standard telephone interface. The digital whiteboard could possibly be drawn on utilizing the included stylus or your fingers, and it even got here with an enormous plastic “eraser” that may take away objects. The SoC was an Nvidia Jetson TX1 (a quad-core Cortex-A57 CPU hooked up to a beefy Maxwell GPU), and it had a built-in digital camera, 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 may pull in objects from Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and all of your whiteboard work was saved in a filetype referred to as “Jams” within the standard Google storage. Like the opposite Workspace apps, this all labored stay over the Web. Individuals not in entrance of the touchscreen may 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 customers, educators, college students, and companies who’ve used Jamboard since its launch in 2016. Whereas 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…” Sure, that is proper, “transition” is normally not one thing you must contemplate when an organization kills a {hardware} product, however the entire cloud system goes down, too, so your entire current $5,000 whiteboards will quickly be ineffective and you will not be capable of open the cloud information on different units.

“Over the approaching months, we’ll present Jamboard app customers and admins clear paths to retain their Jamboard information 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 program’s Lucidspark, and Miro. Google says you possibly can transfer your information in “just some clicks, properly 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,” that means exiting the whiteboard market, exhibiting customers the door, and telling them to take their information with them.

You will nonetheless want a brand new touchscreen, which implies one other dear {hardware} buy for current Jamboard prospects. Google appears to really feel significantly unhealthy for the colleges that purchased into this, saying, “We may even work instantly with academic establishments to compensate them for his or her Jamboard units.“

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