In a move that is similar to what Viliv and Archos have done over the last year in order to embrace the convergence of mobile and internet media, Cowon, a recognised player in the PMP market, is expanding into the PC architecture for it’s next product, the W2.

The W2 will be a 4.8” WVGA tablet-style device running on the Menlow 1.33Ghz platform with Windows 7 and 60 or 80Gb hard drive options. I don’t see any 3G or SSD options in the article at Lazion so we’re basically looking at something that’s already available in the Viliv S5, especially when you consider the reported local entry-level price of around $534

The W2 is reported to have a 10-hour battery life which, if true, means that this will have a hefty amount of battery on it. We’re not convinced that this is going to win any awards but its always nice to see competition in the market. We wouldn’t want Viliv to rest in it’s laurels now would we! The Cowon W2 is due to be launched on Jan 25th in South Korea.

Incidentally, do we really need Windows 7 for a PMP/Internet Media/Web device? I’m a big user of Windows-based UMPCs for productivity work but surely Android would be a better choice here. Look at what Archos did with the super slim A5 IT at half the price and you wonder what media fans would be interested in the W2? Maybe it’s just easier to build a W7 device and not have to worry about the hassle of building an open-source Android build.

Via Lazion