Archos

Archos (, stylized as ARCHOS) is a French multinational electronics company that was established in 1988 by Henri Crohas. Archos manufactures tablets, smartphones, portable media players and portable data storage devices. The name is an anagram of Crohas' last name. Also, in Greek (-αρχος), it's a suffix used in nouns indicating a person with power. The company's slogan has been updated from "Think Smaller" to "On The Go", and the current "Entertainment your way".
Archos has developed a variety of products, including digital audio players, portable video players (PVP), digital video recorders, a personal digital assistant, netbooks, more recently tablet computers using Google Android and Microsoft Windows (tablet PCs), and smartphones (which are manufactured by ZTE under the "Archos" brand name).
Success and decline.
By the year 2000, Archos became an important player in the portable media player market and this was demonstrated by the groundbreaking year 2000 release of the very first disk-based digital audio player (DAP) called Jukebox 6000. This product paved the way for the high-capacity DAPs, which finally resulted in the wide adoption of digital and MP3 players. Archos' success during this period was attributed to its strategy of technological leadership, releasing different iterations of a product line, which featured a succession of products with better specifications and technology than their predecessors.
In the latter part of the 2000s, Archos began to lose to Apple, which - for its part - introduced its own portable devices such as the iPod. This development highlighted a trend in the technology industry where beating competitors to the market and equipping products with the most advanced technology available do not always translate to success. The company started phasing its portable media players in 2008 to focus more on its Android tablet range.
In 2013, the company entered the mobile phone market by launching a series of smartphone models in the market. Archos Titanium, Archos Platinum, Archos Neon, Archos Xenon, Archos Cesium, Archos Oxygen, Archos Helium, and Archos Diamond.
Products.
Handheld and portable computers with x86 compatible processors.
Archos 9 PC Tablet.
The Archos 9 PC Tablet is a 9" tablet computer launched October 22, 2009 and contains Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system.
Archos 133 PC 13.3" netbook.
The Archos 133 PC is a notebook computer with a 13.3" screen. Intel Atom D510 Dual Core, 1 GB 667/800 MHz, Webcam, Windows 7.
Handheld computers with ARM compatible processors.
Archos 5 Internet tablet.
In September 2009 Archos announced the Archos 5 Internet tablet.
Being an extension of the Archos 5, this internet tablet uses Google's Android mobile operating system.
Specifications:
Archos 7 home tablet series.
The home tablet series includes tablets that utilizes Google's Android mobile operating system.
All versions:
Archos 8 home tablet.
The Archos 8 home tablet is a device that resembles a digital photo frame but is actually a full featured computer system that comes with an 8" touch screen with a resolution of 800x600 pixels.
Generation 8.
On August 31, 2010 Archos announced its eighth generation of tablets. The five tablets were supposed to be launched with Android 2.2 Froyo along with a hold-over release of the Archos 5 without its GPS. Froyo was not released until sometime around December, due to numerous delays with the Archos firmware development team.
Arnova series.
Under the new brandname "Arnova", in 2011 Archos released a series of low cost Android tablets for the mass consumer market. They are priced at 100 Euro to 200 Euro (in the U.S. $99 to $199). Current models have resistive touch screens, and uses the RK2818 Rockchip SoC. All versions have Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g). All currently come with the AppsLib application store. The official Android Market is not included out of box, but the Arnova devices may easily be rooted, and the Android Market is commonly installed by Arnova owners.
There are also 2 new generation Arnovas in the market. The main changes are:
Generation 9.
Archos announced in 2011 that it would release a $199 Honeycomb tablet. The G9 tablets are powered by the TI OMAP4 series of SoCs, using the 4430 and 4460 variants at 1 GHz, 1.2 GHz, or 1.5 GHz and are equipped with either 512 MB or 1 GB RAM. They have 8 GB or 16 GB of flash memory, and a microSDHC slot or a 250 GB hard drive. The earliest releases of these tablets utilized Android 3.0 and are upgradable to Android 4.0.3. All have official access to Google Play. Connectivity includes WiFi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and GPS and are upgradable to 3G using an Archos G9 3G stick.
Generation 10.
Archos launched a new series of tablets, under the Name Gen 10 XS.
Digital camcorders, audio/video players and PDAs.
Vision Line.
Archos introduced their vision line in 2009.
The Archos 24 is a pocket size MP3 player. The Archos 24 vision is a stylish music player, with a 2.4" color screen for photos. The Archos 24 vision features 8 GB of storage, with room for up to 4,000 songs. It has a built-in FM radio.
The Larger Archos 3 Vision sports a 3" touchscreen and can play back MP3, WMA, AVI, FLV and JPEG. It stores up to 4000 songs and dozens of movies. It has voice and FM radio recording functions and an FM transmitter which allows wireless streaming music from your Archos 3 Vision to an FM radio sources, such as car radios or home HiFi (available in 8 GB only).
Technical specifications:
The Archos 3cam Vision is a media player with features similar to the 3 vision. It adds an integrated camera for recording video and taking pictures.
Released on 3/5/2010, The Archos 43 Vision is a video media player with a 4.3" touch screen display, 8 GB of storage capacity and 30 hours of battery life. The Archos 43 Vision has very slim form factor, only 10 mm and weighing only 280 g.
The Archos 18 Vision is an all-in-one affordable device, featuring a 1.8" color screen, black casing and 8 GB of storage. It also features an FM radio and voice recorder, as well as 12 hours of battery life.
The Archos 15 Vision is quite thin (only 6 mm) and light (only 18 g) with highly responsive touch keys and the 1.5 color screen that make the Archos 15 Vision very easy to use. It combines the extreme portability with the 4 GB of storage and the FM radio..
The new Archos 14 Vision is an ultra portable MP3 player with 1.4" color screen. Thanks to its original and unusual small design form factor and extreme light weight, the Archos 14 fits into a jean pocket. With 4 GB of storage it accommodates 2,000 songs.
Smaller than a credit card and lighter than a pack of gum, it has a playback time of over 20 hours and a very affordable price. It comes with 4 GB of storage space, and can display music lyrics and photos.
The Archos 2 Vision is a credit card-sized device with a touch area for scrolling. It comes with 8 GB or 16 GB of storage space.
FamilyPad.
Archos launched a 13.3" tablet in December 2012. Sold for €299, it was aggressively placed among the other large screen tablets (superior to 9.7").
Other 13.3" tablets :
-Toshiba's Excite™ 13 Tablet : discontinued
In March 2013, it was quickly followed by the Familypad 2, with an improved dual core Cortex-A9 at 1.6 GHz and quadruple GPU Mali 400 (compared to the former mono Cortex-A8 at 1 GHz of the Familypad 1).
Technical specifications (for the Familypad 2) :
Elements Series.
In 2013 Archos introduced their Elements series which include Cobalt, Xenon, Carbon, Titanium, and recently the Platinum tablet line-ups. Archos has mostly been pushing to publicize the Titanium & Platinum series which they announced at CES 2013. In announcing their Titanium & Platinum series, Archos stated that each of the tablet models were made to compete against another major tablet range in the market, but at a lower price:
Past products.
Former Archos products since discontinued include ranges of handheld and portable computers, digital camcorders, audiovisual playback equipment, portable storage devices, and peripherals for the Commodore Amiga line.
Partnerships.
Content portals.
Released along with the Generation 5 and Archos TV+ devices in 2007, the Archos Content Portal (ACP) provides video on demand purchase or rental directly to the internet enabled devices. However, there is no PC based software for the service such as iTunes. A major difference from similar services is that given "portals" are serviced by different distributors, such as CinemaNow in North America. Archos has numerous ACP partners worldwide but they vary by region.
MoovyPlay.
In the summer of 2007 French-based Cinebank announced MoovyPlay. The device runs on a kiosk to harddrive rental service with Archos building the 40GB player. The Drive attaches to a Dock similar to those seen in Archos players and connects to a Video Display. The device was launched in France on December 10, 2007 with initial success.
PocketDish.
DISH Network Corporation, which owns 19% of Archos since 2005, sold Archos PVPs under the PocketDish brand. There were three versions, the AV700E (AV700), AV500 (AV500), and the AV402E (Gmini 402). While the original products are no longer available, on December 18, 2007 Dish Network released info on a new similar deal with the current generation 605 and 705 Wi-Fi, allowing high speed transfers to the devices from their current HD receivers. Unlike with the original PocketDish, the products will not be sold a Dish rebranding, instead the software plug-in was made available for free for the two products. They are expected to be sold alongside Dish products in January. In 2008 Dish Network's PocketDish page was updated to show the new service and products.
American Airlines.
In May 2007, American Airlines revealed plans of offering modified Archos 604 and 704s to first-class passengers for entertainment during their flight.
Opera.
Opera Software has provided the web browser for Archos devices since the PMA400. They are a version of Opera for devices similar to that seen on the Wii video game console and the Nokia N800 Internet appliance. On Generation 5 devices Adobe Flash support was added. An update to full Flash 9 support was announced in April 2008 from the current Flash 7.
SFR.
In late 2007, SFR, a French mobile phone company, announced to be building a new device with Archos that utilizes 3G communication. It was revealed to be the Archos 5g. The Archos 5g is currently available for a discounted price through SFR for a service contract.
Blockbuster.
A similar deal to the one with Cinebank was announced with Blockbuster Inc. in 2008. The specifics were revealed and Blockbuster hinted that the service will not be Archos exclusive.
Latest products.
In 2018, Archos introduced a slew of products to the market. The most notable of these involved the product unveiled in February, which was the very first Android-powered scooter called Citee Connect. Several weeks later, the company announced the Archos Hello, which is touted as an A.I.-powered smart display to challenge the likes of Amazon Echo. The Saphir 50X joined these gadgets in April 2018. This new release was an update to the Archos 50 Saphir, the tech company's rugged phone brand.
External links.
Enthusiasts web sites :