Given the past failures of tablets, nobody believed that a company could sold 1 million tablets until Apple did. Well, thanks to Apple for re-inventing the tablet designing, marketing and sales. But don’t think that other technology companies will leave the tablet market for Apple. Now that tablet market as be awakened by Apple, every company is get ready to put on in the market by fall. And so is Archos, one of first companies to put Android OS on tablet. Archos is lining up 5 Android tablets to challenge the Apple iPad.

Archos Android tablets

Archos Android tablets

Archos carries the distinction of being one of the first manufacturers to produce an Android tablet. Now, it seems it’s gunning to be the manufacturer with the largest stable of Android tablets.
Today, Archos revealed its plans to deliver no fewer than five new Android-based tablets in 2010. According to the company, all of its tablets are scheduled to be released about September and October, and each it promises to ship each tablet with Android 2.2 installed. Here’s the lineup:

Archos 101

With a cost of about $300, the Archos 101 is the company’s top-of-the-line Android tablet. It has a capacitive 10.1-inch touch screen and measures half an inch thick, making its comparison against the Apple iPad all-too-easy. It it powered by a 1GHz processor and includes a HDMI port for outputting 720p video. The 101 also has USB and Bluetooth connections for tethering. It has a front-facing VGA camera that is compatible with preloaded video chat apps. It comes in two capacities–8GB and 16GB, with the 16GB running $50 extra.
Archos 70
The Archos 70 seems to be an uncompromising version of the Archos 7 Home Tablet. Its touch screen is capacitive, rather than resistive, it has a front-facing VGA camera, and its Mini-HDMI port let you to output video to a TV. The Archos 70 will set you back about $275 for an 8GB model, or $350 for 250GB.
Archos 43
If you’ve caught on the the new Archos naming scheme, you’ve probably guessed that the Archos 43 uses a 4.3-inch screen. Unlike the higher-end tablets, the 43′s screen uses a less-responsive resistive touch technology. To make up for it, Archos threw a camera on the tablet’s back that can record 720p video. It will cost $199 and comes with 8GB of storage.
Archos 32
Approaching the iPod Touch scale, the Archos 32 has a resistive 3.2-inch touch screen and gives you an Android 2.2 tablet for a measly $150. With it you get 8GB of storage, a rear-facing camera that records 720p video, composite video output, and codec support befitting its PMP proportions.
Archos 28
With a screen measuring only 2.8-inches, the Archos 28 is more wafer, than tablet. Still, it comes with Android 2.2, a 320×240-pixel resolution display, plenty of multimedia support, and an 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor. Best of all, it’s only $99.

[via cnet]

Yes, the Android tablets are coming. You know when they do come, they come in numbers. There are over 40 Android smartphones in the US market, almost every technology company made one. Earlier this month, Google CEO, Eric Schmidt said over  200K Android were being sold per day. Well, it seems like the technology companies are getting on Android tablets, too.

Android tablets by everyone

HTC is using Israeli-based N-Trig to build their Android tablet for shipment in time for holiday shoppers according to TheMarker. The timing may be tied to a dubious rumor but N-trig is separately working with HTC on multi-touch tablets and HTC is one of the leading suppliers of Android devices in the world.

Chang Ma, vice president of marketing for LG’s mobile-devices unit told the WSJ, that LG’s Android tablet will set itself apart from Apple Inc.’s iPad by focusing on the ability to create content, rather than simply display it.  It will also have “high-end features and new benefits,” many of which will focus on productivity, Mr. Ma said. “It’s going to be surprisingly productive. Our tablet will be better than the iPad.”  Those are some mighty big words.

Motorola is rumored to be building a 10-inch Android tablet, codenamed ‘Stingray’, that will sell at the end of the year on Verizon’s wireless network. Motorola’s(MOT) Android tablet will be bundled with Verizon and may have GoogleTV functionality according to various reports. CNet gives this product the best chance at challenging the iPad.

Samsung is likely introducing its Galaxy Tab seven-inch Android tablet at IFA 2010, which startsSeptember 3rd in Berlin. Standout features for this product will be its front and back cameras, 3G (Vodafone?) and Super AMOLED display.  Samsung may also launch its iPod touch competitor, the Yepp YP-MB2 four inch mini tablet at the event. This device is essentially a Samsung Galaxy S phone without the 3G hardware inside. It will still have the Android market, however. What appears to be a Galaxy Tab was spotted in Australia.

Also at IFA, Viewsonic is bringing back its tablet line with a 7-inch Android device and a 10-incher that will dual-boot Windows 7 and Android.  The fact that it runs Windows means the 10-inch tablet will likely be Intel Atom based, something more uncommon in the Android tablet realm.

Traditionally only an OEM, even Texas Instraments is getting into the Tablet game with their Blaze platform. This looks to be a bigger hardware device, but still runs on ARM, so it should be a natural fit for Android.

Sony (SNE) is rumored to be building a gaming platform based on Android

Toshiba is rumored to be bringing out a 10 inch Android based tablet based on the speedy NVIDIA Tegra 2 in the next two months, according to Digitimes. The same report said that Lenovo(LePad) and Acer, using Qualcomm chips, were reading Android tablets by the end of the year.

Dell‘s Streak mini-tablet/macro phone is rumored to be joined by bigger siblings by the end of the year. Hopefully Dell (DELL) is working on a more recent version of the Android OS than the Streak’s 1.6.

ASUS, the inventor of the Netbook (whose numbers may be being impacted by tablets), has its own $399 Android-based EeePad being readied for March of next year. The company also has some Windows-based tablets being readied for 2011.

French Tablet maker Archos has some new Android 1.5 tablets that might be better suited to be picture frames.

As well as just about every major player, lots of smaller vendors are in the process of releasing Android tablets at really low prices. Kmart debuted a $150 Android tablet this month from Augenwhich isn’t going to win any quality awards. But India has even cheaper devices based on Android planned to be in the $35 - $50 range.  One Laptop Per Child is hoping they can meet their original goal of $100 with a sleek Android tablet, if not lower it to $75.

[via Fortune]

More on Android tablets
Cisco Cius tablet brings Android to the enterprise

Identity Tab

The Android devices markers are proving that they wouldn’t let the Apple iPad rule the world without giving a challenge. Last week it was a sneak peak of the Samsung Galaxy Tab.  KT, as lunched an Android tablet for the Korean market called the Identity Tab.

Like the Galaxy Tab, the tablet comes with a 7-inch touchscreen display and 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. The rest of the specifications is nothing spectacular – 8 GB of storage, TV tuner, accelerometer, 3 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and an SD card reader.

The Identity tab is primarily designed for tech-people who are looking for an e-book reader or tablet to surf the Internet. As of today, the price is 300 000 won (about 252 U.S. dollars) or  free on two-year contract with WiBro, a Korean wireless broadband service provider.

My only question for now is, why don’t they just call it the iTab (identity Tab)?

iPad is the real deal when it comes to tablet, but a few Android tablets are popping up to challenge the Apple iPad. The latest in the list is the StreamTV Elocity A7.  Engadget got their hands on the Android powered tablet, and this is what they have to say:

Surrounding the tablet is an SD card slot along with USB and HDMI ports, the latter of which did come very handy for hooking up the tablet to a 22-inch HDTV and watching an extremely smooth 1080p clip. (Thank you 1GHz Tegra II-720 CPU!) Speaking of, we also got to play a racing game, Asphalt 5, on the device, though the accelerometer steering was a bit flaky. Besides that, we’ve got to say the entire tablet experience was pretty smooth

Go over to Engadget and view a video review of the device.