Thursday, June 24, 2010

Apple iPad Video

Cheaper tablet does not measure up to iPad

By now you’ve probably heard that Apple Inc. sold 3 million of its iPad tablet computers in its first 80 days on the market. Oddly, this is good news for Apple’s competitors. When a tablet priced from $500 to $830 sells this fast, there’s surely enough demand to support a rival product that’s cheaper . . . unless the alternative tablet can’t even approach the elegance and high performance of the iPad.

Which brings us to the Archos 7 Home Tablet, a $200 device available at Amazon.com. The Archos 7 is the first of several tablets coming to market that use Google Inc.’s Android operating system.

Now there’s a bright idea. Android-based phones like the Motorola Droid and HTC EVO 4G are excellent alternatives to Apple’s iPhone. Why not tailor Android to run on a tablet, just as the iPhone’s software has been superbly modified for the iPad? It could work — but not on the Archos 7, a product hobbled by its reliance on cut-rate hardware and a primitive version of Android.