We're sort of loving Acer's new bad-boy vibe -- not only have company execs recently gone on record saying that US PC manufacturers will be
dead within 20 years and that they want to "
change the Microsoft-Intel environment" with
Chrome OS, but now they're standing firm while everyone else races to do a tablet. At least that's the word from Acer Taiwan president Scott Lin, who told
Digitimes that while Acer can certainly produce a tablet device, it doesn't fit into the company's business model. What's more, he doubts that other companies can simply copy Apple's hardware and succeed -- instead, Acer's going to focus on ultra-thin laptops, a category Acer expects to account for 20-30 percent of its business this year. Lin also said Acer will introduce some new models that are less then 2cm (.7 inches) thick -- assuming there's an ARM-based Chrome OS netbook in that mix, we can certainly see the super thin and light laptop category and the tablet category aligning as direct competitors in the near future.
posted February 1st 2010 7:14PM
@Solidstate89
They were playing with their shitty macbooks with a crap OS and hoping crApple would release a table with OSX. They got a sh8 device that runs the crippled and horrible iphoneOS and now are wondering what their messiah has done; they will still buy because they are the gulliable and so have to declare crapple created the tablet. In actually all they did was made an oversized phone that is a piece of junk.
@thetoad
**An oversized phone†
†No phone included
I give them 6 months tops until we hear them announcing a tablet of their own.
@Smigit
I'm sorry, but a tablet without a physical keyboard or real operating system is just a stupid idea to me. Others may buy the tamPod, but you can count me out.
@a dumb cat
Seriously give me a real OS with infinite functionality rather than some iPutz device that is crippled with a hobbled and junk iphoneOS. the iPutz and all crapple products apple to people who don't know how to use computers so I can see why they want to use that dookie.
@a dumb cat I wasn't counting you in, I'm counting Acer in. If people are prepared to buy it why wouldn't they sell it. And despite the mixed reactions to the iPad the large noise that it has created will ensure that many people will pick one up.
As if Acer will just overlook that. Its not like they can't stop making ultra compacts, a tablet would just compliment their lineup and probably not be a huge departure from their netbook line which they have already anyway.
@Smigit
They have to wait to see how well the iPad sells before committing to any risk. Acer know it has a plentiful consumer base for cheap Windows netbooks so why should it stick its neck out. Only if Apple starts selling them by the millions would Acer jump into the fray with it's "better and cheaper" tablet due to natural industry improvements and cost reductions.
Acer still won't have much in the way of apps or content, but what the hell, tablets will be the rage. Acer will have to try to rip netbooks out of people's hands to convert them to tablets.
@Smigit
Regardless of that, they'll be getting my hard earned money for sure if they keep up the good work theyve been doing with netbooks. I'd much rather spend half the price on a practical laptop than a limited tablet.
Kudos to Acer.
@Smigit haha, a mid sample of the ultrathin laptops acer is talking about is this, The Aspire One netbooks have a 10.1-inch CrystalBrite, LED-backlit display, offering a broader viewing area for Web page navigation and data input. Speaking of college students who are looking for a cost-efficient bookie.. Details: http://bit.ly/acer-aspire-one-AO532h-details
@seliamona Yeah no issue with ultra compacts, I'd prefer one to a tablet personally too (a bit larger but I plan on buying an Asus UL30JT for what it's worth). I stand by my stance though that I find it very unlikely that they won't enter the market when companies like Asus and Apple are jumping in.
@Smigit Future foggy. Try again later.
I'm not convinced. The Apple iPad might succeed because of their media integration. To compete Acer would have to offer similar capabilities. Let's assume they use a non-Intel CPU to hit the battery life, price and weight targets to be competitive. So a Tegra or something, probably with an Arm core. Running Chrome OS presumably since they don't do a lot of software development.
eBooks? Presumably Amazon will develop a Kindle App, so maybe that will be covered.
Doesn't quite cover newspapers though since the Kindle versions of these aren't very good and presumably the ones for the iPad will be better, a la New York Times.
They'll need a place to rent movies and TV shows too. Not going to be iTunes presumably, nor would Microsoft Zune Marketplace likely make itself known here. So unless Google develops something, or Amazon does VOD on Chrome OS...
That would still leave touch-based games (not all Chrome OS devices will have touch, so will this market develop?). Games for Chrome OS probably won't use the accelerometer either since most Chrome OS devices won't have them. Not convinced this market will develop.
Ditto other areas--comics, magazines, ... Would a Chrome OS tablet really be competitive? Could be if Google spends some effort to develop such these markets, but doesn't seem like its going to come from Acer...
Acer is the Anti-Tablet?
Its good to see a company not focus on being a metoo. Instead focusing on what they do best.
... and this is a sound business decision. Wait until the market settles out and decides what it wants. Acer doesn't need to innovate - instead it provides a cheap alternative to the other PC makers. They're going to let the market settle and then build what it thinks the market wants. Seems smart to me... look how happy people have been about the ipad (not very). I would't want to go anywhere near a tablet right now unless it had some serious R&D. That's not Acer's strong suit.
@slipdisc
its funny cause i think acer tablets are already available
@slipdisc
yeah, I'm not really too keen on the Chrome OS though.....
@slipdisc
I'll prefer a slimmer and lighter laptop loaded with Win 7 any day.
@slipdisc
oh im pretty sure they would make a tablet just to test the water. any tech company that refuses to do something without testing it is a bad company and by Bad Company: it's coming on Feb 2nd ;)
I am not making tablet or ...cough cough iPad either :-)
Hi coffin, meet nail.
He pretty much nails it. Apple has the eco-system in place. Without the AppStore, iTuneStore, iBookStore, it will be very hard for a company like Asus or MSI to compete in this space.
@HDD
If all they need is an ecosystem all they need to do is load Android on their system. The Android platform is a growing platform and not a shrinking one and it does have a community around it.
@HDD
Or they see the mega failure that the iPutz is. Look at the reaction around the internet 9/10 people think the iPutz device sucks, its the apple fanboys that keep apologizing for this device - no one else.
@thetoad
Oh and btw most people prefer openness not locked in dookie from crApple. You want music there are tons of stores to buy music from - amazon mp3's marketplace is one there are dozens more available. You want books - use the kindle software with the largest selection of books bigger than some crApple overpriced bookstore with a limited selection.
The iPutz is a jack of all trades and a master of none, in fact it does everything horribly and when it does something it's usually lacking features that were found on devices from 5+ years ago = mulittasking, flash, download software from the internet.
@HDD i agree. plus there just isn't a touch OS out there that acer could use which offers a highly optimised and rich user experience. i still think the iPad is lacking in a few areas but it's probably best in it's field so far, as far as media tablets go.
@laxlaxlax
What do you think about the Joojoo? I think it's layout and design is more of what people were hoping for in the iPad. I think it has tons of potential. Although it has some quirks to work out, I think the user experience is going to improve a lot over time.
@thetoad
Dumb illiterate.
A Tegra 2 netbook would be pretty sweet.
@reallynotnick A4 chip will smoke tegra 2
They need to stop making such shitty keyboards. Their computers are pretty cool, until you try to type on their convex keys. I have to fix my inlaws thin-n-light, and it's not a bad unit - aside from the shitty KB.
Well, at least they're making keyboards.
@PerryAJ
So true.
I love my 1410 minus the keyboard.
If there is a word worst than shitty to describe the keyboard I would say it.
Thank goodness there's a company with some common sense in this industry. This tablet frenzy will fizzle out eventually.
Also, the iPad is not a tablet. It's a big iPod touch.
This story is wrong.
Acer made the Acer 1420p Tablet last year. I have one and luv it.
Info here. => http://microsoftpdc.com/tablet
@garyrusso
that is a convertible, there is a bit of a difference between the two.. mainly the keyboard
@garyrusso: The non-convertible 1410 is a nice general purpose machine with a great battery life. I just wish the 1820PT would come out here in Canada. Our options for convertibles are pretty weak.
@garyrusso
Tablet in the past meant a touch screen laptop with the KB being optional. But with the iPad announce. Tablet can ONLY have a touchscreen.
Dear Acer, A tablet is an ultra-thin laptop with no physical keyboard. :)
@One Love
Given a choice, ultra thin laptop with keyboard, or ultrathin laptop without keyboard which one you will select?
@One Love
according to the article, acer was talking about ipad-like devices, not tablets. engadget got it wrong.
Nilay - "within 20 years and that ?" Should be "will"
@Thinker
Probably using iWork to type that out, horrible software with a poor spellchecker.
@thetoad With grammar like yours, you have no room to talk. It seems you couldn't even compete with a fifth grader when it comes to sentence structure.
@scots79
Compete with your grandma's attention all night long.
@thetoad
Funny you should bring up spell-checking. Mac OS X has a handy system wide spell-checker that works fairly well. I really miss it when I go on my PC. To make it worse, when I use Chrome (on the PC), it tries to do the same thing, except it highlights EVERYTHING that I type. I keep wondering if I made a mistake or something, argh!!! IMO, everyone who comments should use Mac OS X or at least turn on or install something similar on their PC's. It won't fix their grammar, but at least it should improve their horrible spelling.
@Thinker I'm surprised nobody has pointed out "less then 2cm" yet.
In a way this is right decision for acer. There's too many new releases in the tablet segment for any of them being profitable.
And if you think what the customers will buy, a tablet is the third or fourth communications device people buy. There's phones, laptops, desktops and maybe even mp3 players that people buy before a tablet.
Maybe the reason that tablets have never and never will really succeed is that there are so low on buy order. When they come down to buying a tablet their higher items need upgrading, and are bought instead.
Acer and ASUS should go seek out today's most brilliant industrial design minds... their laptops could use some sex appeal.
(The next morning, Jonathan Ive notices a white van driving slowly alongside him while he's jogging...)
Actually, the Timelines look pretty damned snazzy IMO... looks were not a priority for me when I bought it; I would have bought the ugliest laptop in the world if it had eight hours of battery life, but as it turned out, the black/gunmetal gray combination is, IMO, quite classy in an understated, masculine way.
Too bad Acer is a terrible company with customer support so bad that it actually offends me.
At least stay in the convertable tablet business.. Need more competition for the HP tm2t