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$179… 7-inch… New Archos Android Tablet… !!!

This is optimized for low power (up to 7 hours video playback on the battery), lower cost Android multimedia tablet features.

It is powered by a 600mhz Rockchip 2808 processor, does web browsing pretty well (for an ARM9 processor) and plays all video codecs at up to 720p video playback (at up to limited 2500kbit/s bitrates for 720p).

Archos is going to try to sell this device in all retail stores of the world at only $179 in the USA and 149€ in Europe (because European countries have more taxes they don’t just convert Euro prices to US Dollar prices), it may quickly become a best-seller and I think it is a great very low-cost alternative to the iPad.

For advanced users that absolutely want the fastest OMAP3440 ARM Cortex A8 800mhz processor, there is the Archos 5 Internet Tablet available today below $249 at Radio Shack http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3843254 or you might want to wait another few months (I am speculating) for Archos to release the next generations of ARM Cortex A8 or ARM Cortex A9 based tablet devices (probably also for a bit more expensive than this Home Tablet series) at all different screen sizes (I speculate and the interviews around the web point to clues towards from 3″ to 10″ Android Tablets starting at $100…)

For now, this Archos 7 Home Tablet is being released this next month or by May already and at this amazingly low $179 price for the 2GB version with MicroSD card slot. There will also be a 8GB version and maybe larger capacities for slightly more expensive. It also has a mini-jack to composite video-output using the headphones jack and micro-USB to USB host features built-in. The built-in stereo speakers are very decent for movie watching and the 7″ 800×480 resistive touch-screen is just very fine and does allow for fast text input.

Archos is still working on the Android software optimizations, it comes with special video player, audio player and file explorer applications by default. My guess is that the Google Marketplace could be hacked to work onto it by the open development community at http://forum.archosfans.com

Also, my expectation is that Google will release an Android 2.2 or so version which will provide the full Google Marketplace experience on all large screen Android Tablets and even on Android Laptop form factors and also to provide such for lower cost platforms than the latest ARM Cortex based ones. See my interview with Andy Rubin and Eric Schmidt about those speculations: http://armdevices.net/2010/02/22/i-interviewed-eric-schmidt-and-andy-rubin-at-mwc-off-camera-for-now-watch-eric-schmidts-keynote-video/

Here are some pictures of this device (click to see full sized version on Picasa):

You can discuss this video at http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=31278

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