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Comment by miratrix | Hacker News Reader

Looks like Archos has a 7 inch tablet that they sell for $199, though it doesn't have 3G access. Archos has been around for a while and are known to build fairly solid hardware, so this isn't some drive-by-night operation hawking crap on late-night informercial either.

http://www.archos.com/products/ht/index.html?country=us&...

edit: er, apparently it still runs android 1.5...

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Apple already won against Archos despite Archos offering cheaper and maybe in some respects even better MP3 players than Apple. (Please allow me this one dig against Archos: Their products are consistently ugly, though.)

I know that doesn’t mean that Apple will again beat Archos when it comes to tablets but I certainly wouldn’t bet much on Android when Apple merely has to fight companies in the tablet space they already defeated in the MP3 player space. HTC looks like a tough competitor. Archos does not.

I still can't just walk in to major stores and get these. I can go to Apple stores, or Best Buy, and now target, to get an ipad (and Best Buy, AT&T, etc stores for iPhones). :(

And, yeah, you pointed out the 1.5 issue. Google needs to do a better job of getting Android licensees to update their versions. There should be no one selling a new device in October 2010 only running 1.5.

edit: I can't walk in to stores in my area. Some stores report they have some archos tablets, but they're generally not there when I go.

I've seen Archos Android tablets in stores for longer than the iPad has been out, such as at Best Buy.

Besides that, there are plenty of Android tablets out there for various prices.. and build quality of course.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AkYukCg_h8T-cmRtOGMy...

Not that I completely disagree, but:

http://www.amazon.com/Archos-Home-Tablet-Android-Black/dp/B0...

I saw an Android tablet in Macy's today for $169 (might have been $179.) It was an off-brand Chinese model and the display had a dead battery and wasn't plugged in, but the fact that it was there at all, next to the shoe department struck me as notable.

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