iLounge

Cervantes Mobile’s widely-touted Jorno folding Bluetooth keyboard and stand has died without having ever shipped, iLounge has learned. We were contacted by a reader who placed a pre-order for the Jorno following its introduction in late 2010, and was subsequently told that the product wouldn’t actually ship until March 31, 2012. After that date came and went without any word from the company, the reader then received an email from Cervantes Mobile, explaining that the Jorno was being cancelled due to lack of funding, and that the company was “re-launching our business” around an alternative keyboard—the Nomad—a less deluxe design that’s it’s now selling for the same price as the Jorno.

As pointed out by our reader, the Nomad Mobile store is selling this keyboard, alongside an iPad stand called “the Base Cradle.” While the keyboard is inoffensively designed, the Base Cradle is a clone of the excellent Compass stand, unauthorized by developer Twelve South. Interestingly, the lone comment on our September 2010 story covering the Jorno turned out to be prescient: “I’ll keep my eye on this, but they won’t be getting my money until they actually deliver both a product and on the promise of the product.” Cervantes Mobile has yet to update the Jorno website to indicate that the product is no longer expected to launch; indeed, it still states that the Jorno will be “Available March 31, 2012.” (Thanks, Jason!)