French Archos hopes to challenge Apple with new tablet PC

“Archos, an electronics company that pioneered MP3 players in the early 2000s but lost out to Apple’s iPod, hopes to boost sales by beating its larger U.S. competitor to market with touch-screen tablet PCs,” Michel Rose and Florent Le Quintrec report for Reuters.

MacDailyNews Take: Archos is still in business?

Rose and Le Quintrec report, “The company expects to return to sales growth in the fourth quarter for the first time in two years, helped by Christmas sales and the launch of the new product — thin PC devices mid-way between smartphones and netbooks. ‘We are coming back with a new technology, which is the Internet tablet based on Google’s Android. It’s a platform which is rivaling the iPhone’s,’ Archos founder and Chief Executive Henri Crohas told Reuters in an interview.”

MacDailyNews Take: “Rivaling.” Meaning 1/10th the unit sales, less than 1/10th the apps, and 1/100th the third-party accessories market. “Mimicking” is more like it. And not too well, either. Wanna see what Android will look like in three years? Wait until Apple previews iPhone OS 4.0 and then imagine a less usable version three years late.

Rose and Le Quintrec report, “Archos last week unveiled a 17 million-euro ($25.6 million) capital increase to help pay for marketing and developing products in a move that also opens the door to a possible takeover of the company. ‘For our development, if a big player enters, or even launches a takeover bid, I don’t know, I am not opposed to that,’ Crohas said.”

MacDailyNews Take: Unlike Palm, at least Archos comes right out and states its true intentions.

Rose and Le Quintrec report, “The company also expects to post a third consecutive annual loss this year… ‘Thanks to (the new products), we already know this quarter will be the first quarter of growth for two years, so the situation is turning around,’ Crohas said.”

MacDailyNews Take: Hope springs eternal, regardless of merit – or sanity.

Rose and Le Quintrec report, “Shares in Archos have dwindled to around 3 euros from a peak of 76 euros in 2006, giving it a market value of about 27 million euros, compared with Apple’s $180 billion… Apple is expected to launch a highly anticipated but unconfirmed tablet device next year.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: We’ve crossed the Rubicon when Apple product “killers” start appearing before Apple even enters the market(s) it will soon create/revolutionize.