Archos Gen9 Tablets Coming in June 2011

During the investor conference on 18th March 2011, Archos announced they will release their Gen9 Android Tablets in June 2011 with 4 key differentiators compared to the competition:

Plastic-overmolded stainless steel structure:
- Thinner, lighter and stronger tablet enclosure
- Better cost-effectiveness than competing solutions
- Patented techno used since Gen 7 in 2009
ARCHOS alone to use Hard Disks in tablets:
- Deep redesign of Android
- ARCHOS has a long experience in using HD’s for mobile devices
- Price: 250 GB HD = 32 GB Flash Memory
ARCHOS 1st to use ARM Dual Core A9 @ 1.6 GHz
- Forefront competition limited to ARM Dual Core A9 @ 1GHz (iPad 2, Xoom All Gen 9 tablets targeted at 1.6 GHz
- All Gen 9 tablets targeted at 1.6 GHz
New disruptive 3G modem solution for tablets
- Will allow ARCHOS to make headway into telcos
- Implemented in all Gen 9 tablets
- Patent pending

Since Archos Gen8 were based on OMAP3, we could speculate that Gen9 will use Texas Instruments OMAP4 dual core processor. However, the OMAP4440 is supposed to be able to run up to 1.5Ghz only, so we’ll have to wait and see to get a confirmation on that one. This would by the way make Gen9 Tablets the fastest Android tablets on the market.

They’ve also said they would have 6 Gen9 tablets ranging from 5″ to 10″.

There was no announcement concerning the price, but in the 2010 Annual Results presentation, the high end price was 400 Euros. So we could speculate that the Archos 10″ Gen9 Home Tablet would be sold for a maximum of 400 Euros in Europe that would convert into 400 USD for the U.S market. If this is the case this would really be market disruptive as the Motorola Xoom and IPAD 2 (3G version / 32GB Flash) are said to be sold for respectively 700 Euros and 600 Euros.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.