Acer tablet takes chunk out of Apple’s iPad

There is a war waiting to happen, reputations to be trumped, brands to be tarnished and consumers to be rewarded....with some choice!

After a six month monopoly, there looks like there’s going to be some proper competition for the supposedly all conquering iPad; the tablet PC which has completely monopolised the hand held tablet market. Like most people, we love Apple, we love the iPad; the way it looks; the way it feels. However, we haven’t had the chance to fall in love with anything else... until now. The majority of the red-blooded public like change, and with competition growing there’s no harm in a bit of window shopping.

So after the heralded release of Apple’s iPad in April, Acer and several other manufacturers are circling the tablet PC landscape like rapid predators, ready to unleash their own bespoke interpretations.

Even before iPad’s launch, head of Acer’s IT products division Jim Wong confirmed that the company would be expanding its portfolio to include a tablet PC, in line with similar launches from HP, Toshiba and Sony. The iPad may stand alone on the market now, but it needs to be wary; it has a bullseye on its 10 inch touchscreen (speaking figuratively of course, although don’t count out a bullseye app).

Acer may seem combative, but that attitude comes with the territory. Acer is among the top three biggest PC manufacturers in the world, and stepping up is an important move to maintain a dominant market position.

Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci has been vocal in promoting the new Acer tablet, unveiling various
models throughout Q2 and Q3, including a five inch, seven inch and nine inch prototype. Originally
Acer announced a seven inch model, which would be a direct competitor to the iPad (although
slightly smaller), running Google Android OS. “We are not convinced that 10 inches is the right size
for this type of device: it becomes too close to a netbook in size, and why should it not be a
netbook with full PC capability?" Lanci told APC in relation to the size of the iPad screen.

For functionality and aesthetics the new Acer tablet will sport a QWERTY keypad and embedded
3G, which will likely get it mentioned under the same breath as the Kindle. Either way, Lanci
believes the release of the Acer tablet will take a huge bite out of Apple’s market share, from their
current 100 percent position to something closer to 25 percent. Like the iPad, the as yet unnamed
Acer device will make primary use of “books, music and videos, browsing the Internet, email and
chatting.”

“I think people [are] start[ing] to recognize Acer as one of the first companies to come up with new
innovation or new implementation in terms of technology,” Lanci told MeetTheBoss.TV last week.
“The tablet [is] a big opportunity [for Acer].”

So ring the bell, let the slugfest commence, let the noses be bloodied and may the best tablet win.
To watch the full interview click here at MeetTheBoss.tv