Acer, the world’s No. 2 PC manufacturer, unveiled a range of tablet computers to help it compete with Apple’s iPad, wading into the fast-growing market.
With the holidays too close for comfort, the outfit’s giving everyone pause that was considering that janky Android tablet on sale for Black Friday. All jesting aside, the flagship 10.1-incher looks quite interesting, boasting a dual-core 1GHz processor, an HDMI output and a native 1280×800 (!) screen resolution.
Chief Executive Gianfranco Lanci announced at a news conference in New York Tuesday that the tablets would have 5-, 7-, and 10-inch screens, running on Google’s Android software. A second 10-inch tablet will run on Microsoft’s Windows.
Roughly a half-inch think and somewhat long longer (or narrower—it has a 16:9 aspect ratio) and heavier than the Apple iPad, the Acer tablet runs Android . Acer execs said its release schedule for these Android tablets is dependent on when the tablet version of Android (code-named Honeycomb) is ready.
The 10.1-inch Android slate will have 10-point touch capability, a Tegra 2 CPU, HDMI-out, and “1080p capability” . To demonstrate its raw performance, Acer demonstrated it playing an intense 3D game and playing 1080p video.
You’ll also get a 5 megapixel rear camera, an “HD” front-facing camera for video calling and full multitouch support
The company said the Wi-Fi-only models of the tablets would come out in April 2011, while the third-generation (3G)-capable models would arrive about a month later. The 5-inch tablet doubles as a smart phone.
Acer, based in Taiwan, said it was in talks with U.S. phone carriers for 3G connectivity for its tablets.
Tablet sales are expected to grow to 54 million units in 2011 and to more than 100 million units in 2012, according to a forecast by research firm Gartner.
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