Outside the tech bubble that most of us live in, smartphones still aren’t the norm for most people, believe it or not. While the iPhone and several different Android phones continue to make waves in the tech community, the majority of mobile phone users are still rocking feature phones (or “dumbphones”). And many people still have landlines at home instead of using their mobile phones as their primary line.
Archos has an upcoming product, called the Archos 35, which is a bit of a strange bird. It’s a DECT cordless phone used for home/office landlines, but it also has a touchscreen and can be used like a mini Android tablet.
On first glance, it seems like a smartphone (albeit with a 1990′s-looking design) in a dock, but it is a landline phone to be used at home or in the office. It runs Android 2.2 Froyo, but there doesn’t seem to be any information on whether it has access to the Android Market or the typical suite of Google Apps like Gmail and the like.
It has a 3.5″ touchscreen with a rather low resolution of 480 x 272 pixels, but it can use Wi-Fi to connect to the web. The phone has 8 GB of internal memory, and a microSDHC slot for memory expansion. It also has a front-facing camera for web video calls (Skype?). While the specs are rather low-end, it can give people an idea of what can be done when you endow a phone with a touchscreen, a web connection, and a mobile OS. So for people who haven’t yet made the switch to a smartphone for their mobile phone, this home phone from Archos may prove to be a useful transitional product that could finally nudge them into picking up a smartphone.
There’s no firm release date yet, but supposedly the Archos 35 will retail for around $160.
Via GottaBeMobile
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