Hear ye, hear ye! The 7-inch Android-powered tablet market has just gotten a little bit more crowded with the Kobo Arc hitting the FCC. Needless to say, you can tell from the name of this tablet alone that bookseller Kobo is behind it, and the industry widely expects the Kobo Arc to come with an introductory price of $199 – making it more than one Benjamin more affordable than the recently announced iPad mini, and yet placing it within striking distance of the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7.
Having the Kobo Arc appear at the FCC website means only one thing – it is being prepared, and is most probably on schedule to hit store shelves in due time. Some of the hardware specifications found in the Kobo Arc include a 7” IPS display at 1280 x 800 pixels, a 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4470 dual-core processor, 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity, and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. It will come with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on board, although fret not about the future, as Kobo has confirmed that they are developing an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean software update sometime down the road. Another advantage of the Kobo Arc is it will carry Google Play Store compatibility for third party apps, in addition to its own digital book store. The Kobo Arc will come in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB flavors for $200, $250 and $300.
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