Forum.ArchosFans.com

I would just like to say thanks to everyone here at ArchosFans.com, and to Archos them selves, to Charbax thank you for such a great site so full of helpful knowledge and great people. Thanks to Archos for their continued work with Android tablets, you make a great product for the money. I have decided to move on with my recent purchase of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE from Verzion. It was a very tough decision for me as I really like my Archos 101 G8 it has been a great tablet!! Never once had any problems, Archos is probably one (if not the best) at giving firmware updates. Enough about that some may be wondering why I changed. There were only 3 factors as to my decision. They are:

1. Connectivity, now I don't mean by USB, HDMI ect. with this statment, but rather the 3G setup. The Archos uses a sim card on a GSM network, while that is great in Europe, here in the US most of us only have two choices which are AT&T or T-Mobile. So for me it is either bad service or even badder(is that even a word?) service. Anyway I digress, I don't really care for Verzion, but playing around with my new 4G tablet, all I can say is: no contest, 4G all the way!

2. Development, there is(for my taste anyway) too slow of custom applications for Archos products. Now don't get me wrong Urukdroid has done a great job with their custom rom, but for me their is just not much being developed.

3. Lastly and most importantly for me is the fact that it seems to be a trend with Archos to bring out a new tablet each year instead of looking a little farther into the future, now that may change with the Gen9's I'll have to see, but to me it seems as though Archos looks at their tablets as disposable units instead of long haul devices. Now mind you this is merely MY own opinion.

I will still be a part of this forum as my daughter still has her Gen8, and my Gen8 will be heading off to NY to my son, and I still may buy each of them a Gen9, as they are a lot cheaper than what I paid out today.

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Archos A101 - Samsung Fascinate

Happy trails. Samsung seems to be on a roll. I bought the HTC View and I love it, but I think my wife will be recieving that now that Samsung has introduced the Galaxy 7.7 and the Note. I enjoyed my time with Archos but the market is moving so fast.

I know 5 inch and 7 inch are the killer sizes in my book.

The Note has a user replaceable battery too!

I too, have been considering jumping ship from Archos. In fact, today I bought an Acer Iconia 7". Despite the better screen, processor,ram, etc it would not play the audio on my current videos. Before you ask, I don' t know the recording format without going back to look. I just know they did not have sound. I also know there s probably a work around but that is the point. With my Archos I don't need a work around. My videos just play. I did not find $329 more value than in my current device.

The Acer has already been returned.

For anyone interested, my Archos 7o is running the newest firmware, market app from Applib, no market hack or root. Subsequently, no more crashes either.

I'll wait for Gen 9. Archos is a media player device that does internet and the market. For MY purposes that is what I need in a tablet.

RANDY

First post - hello all
I read the release dates may be in October post and it was too much, after 3 Archos devices (currently a 5" tablet) i bought a Packard Bell Liberty on Sunday (mainly because it was £299 compared to its Acer twin at £350).

Well impressed and happy with it, but it was a spur of the moment buy purely because i so so so wanted an 8" 250 gig g9.

So i may still get a G9 but we will see.

I'm afraid i'm probably joining you. I have Samsung tablets too and they really are in a different league compared to the Archos. My 101 is a decent device but it just doesnt have the overall professional quality hardware or software of Samsung or Apple devices (Note that i'm not an Apple fan and do not own any Apple products). Its a pity becuase i've had many many Archos devices since ~2001. Unfortunately their products are no longer niche and as such its just very difficult to compete in todays broad iOS/Android landscape. Last year Archos did have a decent edge on price but if you look at the announced pricing for the upcoming Gen9 devices that is no longer there.

Not sure what Archos can do to turn things around and be successful. Its not their fault that the niche market that they have been in for years has exploded and become mainstream. Its fairly common for an innovator in a marketplace to get swallowed up or cease to exist as the market matures and grows around them. As such they are competing with manufacturers with wide and varied pricing and product quality. Add to that very large players such as Apple, Samsung, Sony, Lenovo, etc, etc with large established manufacturing and supply chains grabbing large shares of the marketplace. So what is left for Archos? Lets be honest, Archos made a good choice early on with Android, but they dont have the marketing, manufacturing and R&D $$$ of a Samsung or Sony.

My suggestion is that they should offer to OEM their products and development to the many firms/people wanting to jump into this marketplace. Or alternatively aim at being the leader of the low end space but they need to price appropriately for that and it is possible that as a firm their business model just cannot compete in a low margin environment.

For now my 101 has been relegated to being my wifes Angry Birds and Solitaire bedside device and my 43, which was a recent replacement for my Gen5 that died after 5 years of solid service, continues to be a great portable video player for my young son. Although i doubt my flimsy 43 will provide the 5 years of use that the well built Gen 5 did.

My 2c

"Not sure what Archos can do to turn things around and be successful."

they have to work out of the box, and work well, simple!

marcel

I agree with both of the last two posts. I my self need a much higher quality tablet. Now with that said, I will be getting my daughter a new Gen9 10.1 with the 3g dongle. As I think it will suit her for her needs. As for her Gen8 10.1 well that one is getting bequeathed to her 3 year old son to play with. As I said before the Archos units were great to get your feet wet with Android before plunging into the deep end of the higher tablets, but now its time for a big boy toy. Just MHO, although it may change when I see my daughters new Gen9 I'll report back.

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Archos A101 - Samsung Fascinate

Archos is still selling like crazy. http://www.archos.com/corporate/investo ... r_2011.pdf

Archos no longer is a niche player and is targetting multiple markets. They didn't create the Arnova brand to compete with the original Archos brand, but to target budget users and let the Archos brand compete with the big boys.

I think G9 will fix my two main gripes, the bad viewing angles of the screen and the overall speed of the tablet.

Am I going to buy a G9 tablet? I'm not sure. I like my Archos 70 for the portability and kickstand. I don't like the Archos 80, as I prefer 16:10 or 16:9 aspect ratio. I'm also looking at the Samsung 7.7. If I can find a decent solution for the kickstand, it's going to be my next tablet. I'm also excited about the IR port, so I can turn it into a universal remote. And my TV and next AV receiver are also controllable with an Android app through Wifi.

But just because a couple of people here are jumping ship, does that mean that Archos needs to change their strategy? Looking at the sales figures of Archos, there are a whole lot more people out there that we don't see in the forums here.

Archos needs to churn out new tablets every year, just like Apple and Samsung are doing. Not renewing your product line every year is suicide in my opinion. Will I buy a new tablet every year? I think I will buy one this year, but after that it will be just like my laptop. I replace it when I feel it's time to replace it, not because there are newer models released.

Really?! You returned it rather than installing another video player app (many of which are free)? No matter what tablet you buy there will always be formats/codecs that aren't supported by the stock player. Even the Archos stock player won't play AC3 audio or MPEG 2 video with buying their plugin.
This seems kind of like returning your PC because Microsoft Office or Photoshop isn't pre-installed.

LOL

its a joke?

Archos has released 13 firmware revisions/updates for the G8. That's 1 update per month that the G8 has been out. As a comparison, the Galaxy Tab has only had 3 firmware updates in the US in the same timeframe.

Giving lots of firmware updates is not necessarily a good selling point!

Now if each firmware update was to add new features, then yes, that's great.

But more often than not, Archos updates are to fix previously advertised features that don't work correctly, and then updates to fix features broken in the last update!

And, I may add, most of the updates for bug fixes would never have happened without the efforts of the people on this very forum!

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605Wi, A5IMT, A5IT, A7o 8GB:2.4.82

did any of these 13 firmwares had more fixes than new bugs?;)

Yes. As I said in my original post, Archos worked for me out of the box. While I did find some improvement over my 7o, I did not find $329 worth of improvement. Actually, I tried two other video apps. Neither provided sound. Es video and mobo which works great on my phone.

Has anyone seen the videos for the new Galaxy Note..... WOW..... now that's where Archos should've been with their tablet progression, instead of having us buy their product hoping firmware updates will make it the product that was promised or just hoping that the next year's version will get it right. Sometimes we just want something we can be proud of AT THE START. I've bought Archos products for years and years because I liked to be different and it was cool to touch my screen while Ipoders were fiddling with a " wheel " but it seems almost everyone has surpassed Archos now and it wouldn't make sense to keep spending money just for nostalgic reasons. If they came out with a 5" model this year, would I have stayed, probably, that's all i've wanted, so i've been right here and they've gone left and will get left behind, Galaxy Note..... here I come, thanks for the memories Archos and to those that haven't seen the Note yet, please check it out, tell me what you think.

while i can't say i've seen it, engadget has, and they said that it is indeed speedy, and will hit scandanavia by the end of the year for a whopping $1000!!! i don't think i could possibly justify the expense when i'm perfectly happy with my a5a which does everything i really need it to, and if you and others are bowing out on archos, i'll be perfectly delighted to have one or two fewer people to fight over a g9 when they come out.

Naw, not close, they released the official price for it and it's much cheaper than that.

http://www.gizmodigit.com/official-pric ... -revealed/

$200 with a contract is much more reasonable, assuming of course apple doesn't keep it off the shelves like they're now doing in germany with the galaxy tab. then again, my current phone is water resistant, is paid for, tethers to my laptop and a5a (and hopefully will the g9), and because it's not a smartphone, my data is only $15 a month! granted, i'm not able to stream video, but that doesn't bug me much.

Wow, I even found a video with the Archos General and commander in chief, Charbax, being impressed by the Galaxy Note, will archosfans.com soon become Samsungfans.com??? Hahaha,

http://www.youtube.com/user/Charbax#p/s ... hvl-xGcK4w