Who would have known that there’s a product called Archos? Sure we’ve heard of Creative’s Zen, iRiver, etc. But they all don’t have what Archos have! No, not radio! Built in WiFi! W-i-F-i! They are the first in the world~! A comprehensive review of the Archos 604 WiFi is done by MP3.com here.
Many would believe that Archos is in the market a bit too early. But it is also the right time, early adopters will love it. Hopefully, Archos will hear ‘em out and continue to improve it. But is it realistic? In Europe, bandwidth isn’t cheap. We pay for data transfers! It’s starting in America too. So where will their target be? Africa? Asia? Middle East?
But more importantly, do people have the facilities to enjoy online streaming of their media files? Not yet I believe. But soon…soon.
It is a damning affirmation of Archos’ failure in marketing and promotions that your opening comment states “Who would have known that there’s a product called Archos?” especially in light of the fact that Archos actually introduced the world’s first portable mp3 player with 10/20 Gb capacity. Even all the way back in 2002 instead of opting for the newly introduced small capacity iPod, I was already trying to look cool with my brick of a 60Gb Archos mp3 player.
Anyway, ground-breaking as it was then, the Archos was bedevilled by firmware inefficiencies and inferior battery support, so much so that an open source movement and independent user community grew up around it to give life to a product that had promise but which the manufacturers had not optimised sufficiently. And thus grew the Rockbox project at http://www.rockbox.org which has now evolved to supply alternative firmware for portable players that include not just the Archos but also iRiver, iAudio and even the iPod.
Archos has always been quick to market claiming pole positions in the portable audio and video sectors, but their emphasis on quick and not enough on marketing has seen their achievements unmatched by market share or mindshare…