These prices are partly based on official suggested prices and partly on my speculations for the positionning of all Archos products around the time that the 5G is to be released starting next week. Those are the prices that I think one can find Archos products at this point in shops around the world. In USA you can replace the € with $ without doing the conversion since in USA there is lower taxes on electronics and more competition. Some of the imminently expiring ones are eigther still available in small stock quantities or is available at archos.com using the official Silver reconditionning service. Using online comparison sites like http://preissuchmachine.de or http://froogle.com, you can find these products even cheaper:

According to Google Trends:

archos 604 -wifi archos 704 archos 404 archos 504 archos 604 wifi

The result of the Archos 604 Wi-Fi might not be real since there might have been different ways in which people type the word Wi-Fi.

This picture is on the page 39 of a 2006 reference document that Archos submitted to the french financial markets authority, the document which is available at amf-france.org:

Click on the image for the full size image

Amazon, Flickr, Youtube, BitTorrent, Myspace and Skype brands are featured in this document. This doesn’t mean that Archos has partnerships to be announced with any of these large media coorporations, though it might be that certain clever API implementations are in the works to for example easilly upload videos to Youtube and other video hosting sites directly by a 1-click feature on the Archos 5G. Also there might be some special Flickr interface to easilly find and download pictures by tags as well as upload pictures to ones Flickr account. Same idea for accessing content from Amazon, be it audiobooks and videos from Amazons unbox service. I would guess that BitTorrent VOD content is more probably going to be downloaded to a desktop computer or a BitTorrent enabled set-top-box and then that the p2p-downloaded content can be synchronised with the Archos and that it can also include the DRM that is might be used on such VOD services. Skype and other voice and video over IP systems would be impressive on an Archos 5G or later.

HSDPA and a way to stay always connected using HSDPA and Wi-Fi would be great to have it wake-up from sleep mode when there would be an incomming VOIP call.

I spoke with Fon Frances president last week, and he told me he had already spoken with Henri Crohas the boss of Archos, and that a deal between Archos and Fon France was already in place. I guess it’s about implementing automatic log-on for Archos users who also have a Fon account, and for non-Foneros to get easy access to the Fon hotspots by paying for access at the price of 3$ per 24 hours.

American Airlines will provide Archos 704 and 604 for free for first class trans-atlantic passengers and for a renting fee for economy class passengers. The Archos will be pre-loaded with content.

What I think:

- That it will probably be of the 704 Wi-Fi and 604 Wi-Fi type but with the Wi-Fi feature disactivated since Wi-Fi is not available really on airplanes yet, since the touch-screen interface is the most user-friendly for users who haven’t used a button-only PMP before.

- That they should have a whole system of docking for recharge and synchronisation, so that users can get the latest episodes of Colbert Report, Daily Show and all those other american TV shows that people would enjoy watching on the airplane, and thus the content could be up to date as well as the latest movies but also a lot of old stuff. All is probably already available to the airline company that is Ameircan Airlines since they already have the content deals that would cover most of that content even that content being recent.

- The airlines should be able to rent those even to economy class passengers, just put an information page or booklet in the seat pocket explaining everyone can rent an Archos for the flight for a reasonable price of like 10$ or 10€ for the flight, even 2-hour flights would be suitable for this kind of service. To prevent theft and damage, the airline can simply make the user sign a simple to read contract basically saying “The user is responsible if coffee, butter or otherwise that the device is damaged”. As well as the flight attendent can take the passport as well as take a print of the users credit card so that each user is responsible with the product and can appreciate the service for that reasonable price.

- The airline and Archos should use this opportunity to also be able to directly sell the 704 Wi-Fi and the 604 Wi-Fi on the airplane for a good tax-free price, just as they are selling other tax-free goods like perfume and chocolates. The price of each can be displayed clearly on the information booklet in the seat pocket, as well as the picture of the 704 and the 604 should be displayed in real-size aspect ratio so that people can make the right choice between the 704 or the 604 to rent or buy on the airplane. Using subscription DRM solution and up-to-date synchronization of content and DRM between the airlines content deals and available online subscription DRM video services, the user should also be able to have his newly bought Archos 604 Wi-Fi or 704 Wi-Fi synched up with all the exact same content that would be on the airplane owned version, but with only about a 3 month included subscription that needs to be renewed with the video content subscription service to enable the user to continue accessing all the content after the introductary included period.

- This first trial should also prepare the larger and more powerfull service and marketing that Archos can do with the upcomming 5th generation in this same way in partnership with the airlines and the airline content and service providers.

- Archos should also be able to do the same kind of partnerships with train and bus companies. Like the TGV SNCF in France and the Greyhound bus company in the USA. In any ways the product can be rented for a reasonable price per ride, theft and damage is guaranteed by holding of the passport and credit card print until the return of the product, and all of this also to achieve a probable very high direct sale also since users who try it during their whole airplane, train or bus ride might want to buy the product to own with the same pre-loaded content.

Gizmodo says it will playback HD-downloaded videos.

According to a press release about Archos partnership with the french top TV channel TF1 (Source in french: 1, 2, 3), the next generation of Archos portable players will start to be available this summer.

According to a recent interview with Henri Crohas available at ArchosLounge.net, the future for Archos is not to produce a phone product, it is to have the complete generation of products connect to the Internet to access content directly without the need of a computer, a set-top-box or a TV. With it’s more Internet functionalities, still Archos will be the leader of technology of a pocket multimedia product working between a computer, a set-top-box and the TV.

If you understand french, you can listen to an hour and a half long podcast featuring me over at http://www.archoslounge.net/L-emission-qui-reveille-ton-Archos,6589.html

Doing podcasts is fun, so maybe we should start producing some in english here for ArchosFans.com. Check back soon for english speaking Archos related podcasts. And also check back soon for the HD video-review of the 704 Wi-Fi with its 800×480 touch-screen as soon as it is available.