

Sub $200 Android tablets arrives: is the iPad doomed? - erlik
http://www.tech-no-media.com/2010/03/sub-200-android-tablets-arrives-is-ipas.html

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replicatorblog
This seems like a horrible comparison. The Android tablet has 8X less memory,
at best, smaller screen, low build quality, a low power chip, no app store, no
marketing or brand, but because it has Flash lite it is going to cripple the
iPad?

This does not deserve to be front page on HN.

~~~
dutchflyboy
Well, I must disagree on most points. As the archos has a sd card reader, the
memory isn't an issue (16GB modules are quite easy to find), the chip is low
power but that's not bad, as it'll have more autonomy, (that's why the iPad
has the A4), and most importantly, Archos IS a brand. A quite good one at
that. The build quality is excellent (well, I can't vouch for this product,
but Archos is a good brand).

~~~
replicatorblog
I don't get how a lower powered chip is an upgrade. When you say autonomy do
you mean side loading software?

I respectfully disagree re: Archos. Do you know many kids who asked for an
"Archos Clipper" for Christmas? Does Archos do any consumer advertsing? Is
there a cottage industry of bloggers who make livings reporting on the
happenings at Archos. You are technically correct, it is a brand, but not a
very popular one.

I think this is something many people ignore. For people who don't hang out
here, the iPod goodwill goes a long way.

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FluidDjango
With a rating of 3/5 stars from 70 Amz reviewers?

[ [http://www.amazon.com/Archos-32-Internet-Tablet-
Android/dp/B...](http://www.amazon.com/Archos-32-Internet-Tablet-
Android/dp/B002OL2PLU) ]

Maybe not.

Or... maybe tech-no-media just didn't tell me about all the publisher
relationships that 'droid manufacturers have been developing (à la Steve Jobs
since January).

It's not just the "cool" of the hardware that Apple plans to leverage - it's
the store and retail relationships.

~~~
jrockway
The 5" was a beta program that the users had to pay $400 to participate in.
And oh yeah, nobody was told that before paying the $400.

Needless to say, not all the Amazon reviewers were too happy about that.

The reality is, Archos fixed the problems, and now that tablet is basically a
desktop machine in terms of web browsing and video playing ability. You can
connect a keyboard and mouse (for writing HN posts), if you want, and you can
output and record 720p video / 5.1 channel audio. (And it plays real-world
video formats, not just what Apple sells in its video store.)

Honestly, I thought Archos was quite clueless when they released the 5"
device, but they are doing better now. I emailed them asking why their media
player app couldn't display Japanese fonts, and the next firmware update had a
Japanese font. Of course, I would have been a lot happier if I had write
access to my own filesystem... then I could have added it myself. I would also
like documentation / code for controlling the DSP chip, so I can write a media
player app that doesn't suck. Archos has kept the same codebase on all their
devices, and while the video decoding works OK now, the UI code is just
horrible. I think the whole app is a bunch of if statements like "if( volume >
0 && headphones_attached && phase_of_moon == FullMoon && ... )". Sometimes
they forget to cover all the conditions, and weird stuff happens.

(To be cynical, I doubt we will ever see the tools we need to write a good
media player app, and that Archos will eventually be dead from buggy software
and obscurity. If that happens, hopefully someone else will release a Linux-
based music/video player, because I am tired of Apple dominating this market.)

 _Or... maybe tech-no-media just didn't tell me about all the publisher
relationships that 'droid manufacturers have been developing (à la Steve Jobs
since January)._

Nobody is buying the iPad for the ebooks. You don't want to read a book on an
LCD screen.

But oddly, it seems that Amazon is deliberately shunning Android with their
Kindle app. It works on Windows, Blackberry, and iPhone... but not on Android.
WTF, Amazon? How hard is it to display plain text on a screen? (My DRM-
stripped Amazon ebooks work fine in the stock browser.)

~~~
DenisM
I participated in another $400 beta from Archos back in 2000. I see they
didn't change much since then - it all looks very familiar.

Later on someone developed an open-source firmware for the Archos mp3 player,
so there is hope.

~~~
jrockway
Yeah. I thought I would give them another chance, but they are trying to be as
controlling as Apple without having the ability to do it.

They say they can't allow arbitrary firmware reflashes (or root access)
because they want to sell DRM'd content. Well, their content library is like
one home video. It sucks and reflects poorly on their company and
shareholders. (Same with their DRM'd games and other crap.) It's time for them
to realize, "we're not Apple", and to stop acting like Apple. Archos is a
hardware company, but like many other hardware companies, don't get software.
So they should just let the community write the software for them. (Remember
Sony? They made awesome hardware, but their consistently bad software did in
all their consumer electronics that run software.)

Archos now lets you flash Angstrom Linux instead of Android, but the image
they provide is just horrible. They seem like they're trying to improve, but
sadly, I don't think they are ever going to make it.

------
allenp
"The big problem for Apple is that for most common tasks such as surfing,
reading eBooks or playing audio and video the Archos tablet will will perform
as well as the iPad for less than half the price."

Will it perform as well? Maybe on paper but CPU doesn't mean anything if the
user experience isn't tuned and Apple has a good track record there.

~~~
jrockway
How is the user experience going to be different? Step one: click picture of
globe. Step two: browse Intarwebs.

~~~
glhaynes
Yep, that's all there is to it. iPhone OS took one guy about a week to write.

~~~
jrockway
And Android was written in a few hours, in a coffee shop...

~~~
glhaynes
The point is there's more to the device than just the web browser.

------
stcredzero
_The big problem for Apple is that for most common tasks such as surfing,
reading eBooks or playing audio and video the Archos tablet will will perform
as well as the iPad for less than half the price. The only usage scenarios
where Apple dominate is mobile gaming, will that be enough to justify the
price? For some people most certainly, and you can expect a lot of Apple fans
to be ready to pony up the cash too, but I am afraid that the average user
won't see it that way and that the iPad will stay an high end device with
limited market share._

Apple can position the iPad as the "cool" device where the Archos can get the
low-cost segment. It can become the "cool" thing to have on campus, just like
Apple laptops were. It will be a flash in the pan unless it's actually useful
to college students, however.

~~~
robotron
Brand is everything.

~~~
illumen
Branding is where I think android will win.

Google is better at marketing and branding than Apple. Also Android is cooler
(sorry apple people it's true). Apple is now seen as mainstream, and boring.
Finally android is technically superior.

A better media player is another reason why android devices will win.

Until the Troll (tm) comes out, and eats them all up ;)

~~~
halostatue
Bwha? It could be that I'm missing sarcasm, but wasn't Apple named the best
brand of the 00s, and Jobs the marketer of the decade? There is _no way_ that
the company that screwed up the introduction of Buzz is better at marketing or
branding than the company that got months of free advertising of its name and
product for the cost of one significant demo.

Apple gets millions of dollars in free advertising by keeping things close to
its chest—and even stories like this give Apple free advertising because it
keeps the Apple name in the headlines.

These sorts of stories are nonsense anyway; the tech industry isn't a zero-sum
game. There won't be one winner. There will always be people who only buy
Apple products because they're blinded by the RDF. There are those who buy
Apple now because the quality's higher, but could see switching if something
better comes along—but nothing so far has. There are those who buy nothing
Apple because they are also blinded by the RDF.

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toddh
The article has a list of ways it is inferior, but says that's OK because it's
cheaper. That's not Apple's market.

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maxharris
I'm not going to buy this piece of garbage. I want something that just works,
and has every detail (hardware and software) thought out beforehand. That's
why I'm going to buy the first 3G-equipped iPad that I can get my hands on.

------
mikecane
New Archos Mini-Tablet Challenges iPad, Kills eInk
[http://ipadtest.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/new-archos-mini-
tab...](http://ipadtest.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/new-archos-mini-tablet-
challenges-ipad-kills-eink/)

------
fierarul
The iPad isn't even launched and it's already doomed? Yeah right... it will
sell like crazy.

