After promising to do so for months, World number 3 PC brand Acer has launched three tablets — 10.1 inch, 7 inch and 4.8 inch.
The tablets will have full multi-touch displays and will be based on NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core 1.0 GHz processor. All three will support SIM cards — making them suitable to be used as a phone in crunch times.
The costliest model — 10.1 inch Windows version — will be priced around Rs 32,000 while the 10.1 inch model with Google’s Android Honeycomb operating system will cost around Rs 27,500. Honeycomb is the version of Android aimed at large screen touch devices such as tablets. The 10.1 inch models will be called A500 and the Windows model will sport an extra wireless keyboard, targeting the professionals.
The Iconia is one of the, if not the, first tablets to come out with Windows operating system on it.
The 10.1 inch models will also have built in LTE connectivity as well as advanced Sky Cross antennae that is likely to increase reception on most signals.
The 4.8 inch A300 will be based on Android Gingerbread 2.3 operating system and will have an 8 megapixel camera.
Dell had launched similar models earlier this year, starting from 5 inches and going all the way up to 10 inches.
The tablets will be encased in Aluminum and will be 1.33 cm thick. They will have a full size USB port, mini USB port, HDMI output and Micro SD card slots.
“We have created a new range of easy to use devices with touch technology which includes smartphones, notebooks and tablets on their latest Windows 7 and Android operating system. Today consumers want to have a complete control over their content creation and our touch technology will completely remap the user experience to create a far more natural interaction with their devices,” said Mr. S Rajendran, Chief Marketing Officer, Acer India.
A fusion of the latest and best technology, the tablets support 3G and have Dolby sound as well.
The tablet market is the most explosive category in personal computing with growth similar to what was seen in the early days of the ‘netbook revolution’ that started in 2007.
Acer, thanks to its expertise in designing motherboards and other PC components, soon left other competitors behind in the netbook market and scooped up a 40% markethsare — making it the World number 1 in netbooks.
It was, however, left behind in the tablet revolution by Apple, which launched its iPad tablet in April last year. Korean competitor Samsung too followed suit, with its Galaxy Tab while Acer and Dell were still in their planning stages.
Tablets such as the Galaxy have been criticized for morphing a smartphone operating system (Android 2.2 or lower) onto a large-screen device. The Iconia, on the other hand, will be one of the first models to come out with the tablet-oriented Android Honeycomb, along with Dell’s 10 and 7 inch models.