This announcement out of ARCHOS is right up the alley of what I said a week or two ago. The line between MIDs and smartphones will blur as folks don’t want to carry both a phone and Internet browsing device. That’s precisely where ARCHOS is heading with their newest IMT, or Internet Media Tablet.
By combining the MID expertise from the 5 and 7 lines of devices (shown) with an Android telephony stack, here’s what they’ve come up with:
- A high-res 5-inch display capable of full-width page viewing. ARCHOS didn’t specify the resolution, but I’d guess 1,024 pixels wide. The current devices are 800×480 resolution.
- Full-screen Adobe Flash support
- TV recording and HD playback thanks to the TI OMAP3440 processor
- Up to 500GB of storage
- 10-millimeters thin
- Up to 7 hours of video playback; I’d expect that you can use this device for a full day of web usage based on that.
- HSUPA support up to 7.2Mbps
No pics yet but since “tablet” is in the name, I’d expect it to look similar to the ARCHOS portable media players / web browsing devices currently offered. Interesting how MID might be an Intel-coined term, but this MID is running on an ARM. Can’t wait to see pricing and more details; for now we’ll have to wait until the third quarter to see this product on shelves.
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