Two media extender announcements in one week! Can it get any better than that? ;) Archos joins DivX in by releasing details on TV Plus. Engadget had some hands on time with the prototype and reports Archos will offer DVR functionality including an IR blaster to control that cable box, in addition to typical media extender features. Given their previous DVR dabbling (via portables), I wonder if Archos will provide any guide data. The remote is particularly interesting — with it’s jog dial and qwerty keyboard, it kinda reminds me of a screenless old school Blackberry or Moto pager. TV Plus is scheduled for a fall launch at a cost of $200 – $350 depending on hard drive size. Of course, there’s really no telling how large (or small) the market is for media extenders – how many boxes can it support?
Archos also announced several new portable media players this week but, like PDAs, this is a dying market segment for most companies. Heck, Microsoft even killed their PMC OS. As small devices gain power and we tire of carrying these multiple gadgets, we’ll see enhanced multimedia functionality built into our smartphones which will receive more mainstream attention. Oh yeah, something called the iPhone is about to drop.
UPDATE: Michael Gartenberg confirms these devices will offer an EPG. Hm, interesting…
Archos PMP is an iPhone killer if you haden’t noticed..
Video-on-demand on-the-go and at home on the TV, Full screen Flash video streaming support from sites like Youtube, DivX, H264, Mpeg2, RealVideo, WMV, Quicktime, AC3, AAC, Mp3, WAV, video playback resolution supported up to 720p even on-the-go, 800×480 4.3″ screen for 150 grams, 5.5 houres video playback battery with 4-hour battery extender option, portable media-extender feature to stream content from NAS or local storage on the local network and probably also Slingbox/Orb type functionality over the Internet, webradios like Last.fm supported, HSDPA module for VOIP and Skype probably going to be available.
PMP is a market with huge growth, soon enough all Mp3 players will be replaced by Internet-connected PMPs.
I don’t doubt the specs (I’ve been a fan of Archos PMPs for some time), however I do doubt their potential success in the marketplace. Smartphones, video iPods, iPhones, even Zunes are going to lock up mobile video and there won’t be much room left for the Gigabeats and Axims of the world.
iPhones are going to be a failure, samrtphones are useless for video cause they are locked down and have not HDD, iPods are not used for video cause it’s very weak on the video capabillities, and Zune is a failure already.
Archos is the first device that can take up to HD quality video-on-demand directly from tons of content providers directly over WiFi without needing a computer, as well as it can synch up with your Tivo-like product to natively playback those TV recordings that you have.
People spend hours in public transportation, there is a market for portable video electronics to replace the reading of newspapers or avoiding eye contact in metros.
Looking at the Endgadget description this Archos thing looks DOA.
Thumbs down.