Archos Phone Tablet May Be Canceled

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The Archos Phone Tablet was supposed to be a pretty hotly anticipated phone. The smartphone was going to be (in layman’s terms), their Archos 5 tablet with phone functionality. It would have offered a huge 4.3-inch screen and a 3.5G modem, but rumors now have it that the phone will never come out due to a lack of telcom interest.

Archos CEO Henri Crohas said in mid-January when the existence of the Archos Phone Tablet first came out that the Archos Phone Tablet’s release was dependent on the smartphone being carried by two major telcom carriers. Supposedly, Archos is having trouble selling the tablet phone to telcoms, and the phone is in jeopardy.

Despite being apart of Archos’ display at CES, the Archos Phone Tablet is not being shown at the European CeBIT trade show, which only fuels speculation that the phone is done with. For a refresher, the Archos Phone Tablet was going to be powered by a fast 1GHz processor, have the aforementioned 4.3-inch screen, have 3.5G internet connectivity, and be running Android. It would have only been 10mm thick, according to Archos.

Since using unlocked phones is much more common in Europe than it is in North America, it seems a bit odd that the French company Archos would be so concerned about a lack of telcom partnership. However – we have seen overtly expensive Android phones do poorly, like the Nexus One, which allegedly only sold 50,000 units since its release. If the Archos Phone Tablet is expensive (which it is probably), then it would be much more palatable to the public if it was subsidized by a telcom’s service contract.