Archos Working on Android-based PMP/Phone

Is PMP manufacturer Archos is dipping its toes into the mobile handset market?

Archos, a company revered for its PMP devices, is now entering the mobile phone market as well. Sometime in the third quarter of 2009, Archos will release a new Internet Media Tablet (IMT), a device that looks to combine touchscreen PMP/multimedia goodness with the Android OS from Google. While products from the French PMP manufacturer have been equipped with Wi-Fi and 3G mobile broadband for well over a year, the IMT is the first product from Archos that is meant to be a phone as well as a media player.

"We are continuing to advance our efforts in the IMT space with the introduction of this new product," said Archos CEO/founder Henri Crohas. "Support for an Android-based device represents a historical opportunity for ARCHOS to combine all the best of our IMTs with a phone in a single device delivering high quality video and a full web experience in true mobility."

After looking over the specs, this Archos 5-based handset/PMP looks to be a serious contender in the phone market. The Android IMT will have a 5-inch touchscreen, up to 500 GB of storage, "access whenever and wherever to TV, movies, photos, music and games," and will also support a myriad of standard and high definition video formats. Along with Wi-Fi, the 10mm thick handset will support 3.5G HSUPA mobile broadband. On the software side, the Android-powered device will have full page web browsing and Flash/Flash Video support.

At the heart of the new IMT is the OMAP 3 processor from Texas Instruments, the same processor powering the highly anticipated Palm Pre. "TI remains committed to helping ARCHOS advance its product line and deliver a new class of devices that builds on a history of delivering rich multimedia experiences," said Remi El-Ouazzane, vice president and general manager for TI's OMAP platform business unit. "The OMAP 3 platform, with its support for the Android OS, is a powerful tool to support HD video, high quality multimedia and connectivity anytime and anywhere."

If Archos can pull this new IMT off, it may have one of the hottest phones of 2009/2010. See the full press release here.