Unnamed Archos Android Internet tablet to be unveiled September 15th
ARCHOS WILL SHIP an Internet media tablet running Google's Android OS even before another new product it announced earlier this week hits the shops.
At a briefing with the INQ yesterday, the company revealed its upcoming series three range to be announced in September will all be based around Android, with its customised applications running on top.
ARCHOS 9 PCTablet
The Archos 9 PCTablet launched earlier this week will be Windows 7 based, but that won't ship until late October. Archos will launch and ship another as yet unnamed Android Intenet tablet that will arrive before then, so the company will actually be competing with itself.
We were told the upcoming Google OS based Intenet media device will have only a 5-inch screen, fairly close in size to the Archos 5 Internet tablets of nearly two generations ago and smaller than the 9-inch screen on the Windows model just announced. We imagine that sooner or later Archos will also be putting the Android OS in that larger Internet media device too.
Archos also informed us that its upcoming devices will include some telephony products, but that they won't all be mobile phones. µ
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Seriously - anyone considering an Archos these days should be forced to wear some sort of badge so we know to steer clear of them.
I've had an Archos for 2 generations now (605 160GB and 5 250GB), and they release buggy software (it took 5 firmware releases for the 5 to be *vaguely* accurate with time, a DVR station that cant sync video with Audio, a web browser that crashes every 15 minutes), buggy hardware (constant restarts, paint peeling off, faulty headphone sockets), all backed up by a terrible after sales service from the company (with my 605 it once took 4 hours on hold to get through!)
Now hopefully with the Android and Win7 generations the software will be better - letting MS and Google write your stack is probably a wise move, but its an instant turn off that their engineers will be adding to that stack, makes me think that they havent learnt a thing. Add in Archos' penchant for washing their hands clean of the previous generation 6 months after it launches, leaving users with day 1 bugs unfixed and promises unfulfilled (605 HD plugin anyone?) and shoddy hardware (the last generations at least) and you've got a whole load of angry customers who'll never touch anything with an Archos badge again. Which is a shame because what they do do shows promise. They just never live up to it.
Support for the Archos portfolio is nonexistant. The approach to the customer base is 'release & forget'. I have supported Archos from its inception, yet the lack of success to combine hardware with functional software (i.e. OS & plugins (really Archos?) has left me with four half baked 605 units and empty promises. No thanks Archos....not until you get it together...and prove your in for the long haul (i.e. learn from those who are doing it...Iphone anyone?). Epic Fail...
~b3nz0n8