Yes, agreed. The form was bit too overwhelming on the original design. Plus it said 'Vendio Store' instead of 'Ecommerce Store'.
But I am curious how would you have preserved the original form in variation? If you had put the form, it would have again competed for attention with product description. What variation did here is classic example of "squeeze page".
The more I think of it, the more I think that, indeed, the page is better without the form.
An interesting variation would be to expand the "Signup Now" button into a registration form with Javascript. It would greatly reduce latency and perhaps give a better impression to the users.
What happened to the page described in the article? I couldn't find it at http://www.vendio.com.
But I am curious how would you have preserved the original form in variation? If you had put the form, it would have again competed for attention with product description. What variation did here is classic example of "squeeze page".