Acer to Launch iPad Rivals

[Maura]

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AppleInsider reports that Acer, the second largest computer manufacturer in the world, is planning to release three different tablets in a bid to take on Apple’s iPad: a 7-inch and 10.1-inch Android tablet, and a 10.1-inch tablet running on Microsoft Windows. According to AppleInsider, the two Android tablets will go on sale in April 2011. The larger of the two Androids is 13.3mm thick and made of aluminium, and has a built-in HDMI port with 1080p functionality. It has both Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities, with multi-touch input and an internal gyroscope.

The smaller, 7-inch Android tablet has a 1280 x 800 display, with a 16 x 10 aspect ratio, a forward-facing HD camera, an HDMI port and both 3G and Wi-Fi, plus a dual-core processor and the ability to run Flash (they always mention that one!).

The 10.1-inch Windows 7-powered tablet is due to launch in February 2011, sooner than the two Androids, and comes complete with a full-size keyboard dock. It has an AMD processor and two 1.3 megapixel cameras – one on the front and one on the back – and, as with the other two tablets, both Wi-Fi and 3G.

AppleInsider notes that before the iPad launched, Acer had said it would not be bringing out a tablet, believing that Apple had too much of an advantage and a head-start on its competitors with iTunes and the App Store, but clearly something has made Acer believe that Apple no longer has such an advantage. I would think that the only way the Acer tablets could make any sort of dent in the iPad's sales is if they are very, very competitively priced, but Acer has yet to release any details or even hints about pricing.

Source: AppleInsider | Acer unveils Windows, Android tablets to compete with Apple's iPad

 

[Hasty]

Good news. If any company can provide good competition it's Acer. Hopefully it will just goad Apple to upping their game.

 

[Superbike81]

I like the extra screen resolution this provides over the iPad and all of the other announced Android tablets. Depending on how everything goes with other releases, I might just wait for this one in April. Would give developers time to make tablet specific apps too.

 

[TheBigCheese]

Notice that the tablet does not have the standard 16:9 ratio but a slightly more square 16:10 which means it will probably cut off the bottom and top of "wide screen" material. I had a 19" TV with those proportions and it drove me crazy because the tops of people's heads were cut off.

I agree that price is everything. If the 10" pad is priced higher than the iPad, I don't think it will do well but who am I to predict. There are 600K people who paid iPad prices for the Samsung pad with its postage stamp 7" screen with 1/2 the area of the iPad!

 

[Superbike81]

Doubtful that it will be more expensive than the iPad. The Samsung Galaxy is the most expensive of the new wave of tablets coming, they only got away with the high price because of their name (just like Apple does). Acer has always been pretty on point with pricing for it's products. I would expect the top model 10" to come in at $399.

 

[DaveSt]

Notice that the tablet does not have the standard 16:9 ratio but a slightly more square 16:10 which means it will probably cut off the bottom and top of "wide screen" material. I had a 19" TV with those proportions and it drove me crazy because the tops of people's heads were cut off.

True, but then again the Ipad has a 4:3 aspect ratio which is about as bad as it gets for watching widescreen material. My PC monitor is 16:10 and it does a fine job with widescreen material (of course 16:9 would be optimal). IT all comes down to how good the hardware is at handling the material you are trying to play.

 

[Magiceking]

This is great news, don't get me wrong, I love my iPad, but it's useless for most of the world. The working world I mean. It's good if u like to play games and sit there and convert files all day to watch.

Apple has mastered the smooth scrolling, the responsiveness to touch and the keyboard is awesome, but that's it.


If acer can do this and have decent battery life, be able to connect a USB stick to transfer files, retrieve email through outlook. I would buy hundreds of them for my company. So would the rest of the world, goodbye iPad, hello competition. Even a stylus for drawing onto PDF files if need be.

If apple would just do it, that would be better. But they are too smug for that.