It wasn’t long ago that Kobo announced the range of Arc tablets — new entrants to the 7″ tablet market. However, Kobo have just announced some changes to its plans for the Arc, seemingly removing the 8GB version of the Arc completely, and dropping the prices for the higher-spec’ed models.
As you may remember, the Kobo announcement of the Arc came around the same time as Amazon announced the revitalised Kindle Fire line, with the Kindle Fire HD taking front and centre. It could be this which has prompted the price drop. The revised pricing is as follows:
- 16GB model will be US $199.99
- 32GB model will be US $249.99
- 64GB model will be US $299.99
This new pricing certainly looks pretty competitive against the Kindle Fire HD and the Nexus 7. Will it be enough to tempt people? Time will tell.
For those who need a refresher, the Kobo Arc packs a reasonable punch: a 1.5GHz dual-core OMAP 4470 processor, 1280×800 display (that’s approximately 215ppi — not half bad) and a modest 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. It’s a good size and weight — 12.4mm thick and 364 grams heavy. The Arc will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but unlike Amazon, Kobo have decided to go with a (largely) vanilla Android option, including compatibility with Google apps and the Play Store, with widget functionality providing a home-screen interface to Kobo’s online book store.
The Arc is expected in the next couple of months, with an upgrade to Jelly Bean available at some time in the future.
