Laptops maker Archos has unveiled a machine which it hopes will become a rival for Apple's recently announced iPad tablet PC.

The new machine from the independent laptops firm, dubbed the Archos 9, is available now, meaning it has hit the market two months ahead of the Apple iPad.

The move to release the Archos 9 early has presumably been designed to capitalise on the number of people who industry experts predict will ditch their laptops in favour of tablet PCs this Spring.

While most people when asked say they plan to keep their laptops, there is a growing number who are interested in the new medium.

Unlike laptops, tablet PCs are controlled by users touching the screen to perform gesture-based actions such as scrolling, selecting and moving windows.

The Archos 9 will attempt to take on the laptops market armed with a 60GB hard drive, Intel Atom processor and Windows 7 software.

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