Acer Brings Dual-Screen Laptop to Reality

[Devil Soul]

Acer Brings Dual-Screen Laptop to Reality
By Melissa J. Perenson, PCWorld Nov 23, 2010 8:46 pm

Are physical keyboards soon going to be a thing of the past? At a splashy event here in New York City, Acer Tuesday announced its new concept for a laptop: The Acer Iconia. The name's gravitas is appropriate given that it's the first laptop to ditch a physical keyboard in favor of a two touch-screens attached by a hinge, just as with a standard laptop.

The Iconia runs Windows 7 Home Premium, and features two 14-inch, high-definition displays packaged in a clamshell design. The upright display acts as the primary display, while the display that remains parallel with the surface generally serves as a navigation panel, alternatively displaying a roomy on-screen keyboard, a touch-wheel and other on-screen touch controls, or even an extension of what's displayed on the primary display. The latter option effectively provides a dual-monitor mobile device for presentations or studying complex spreadsheets across both monitors, or viewing one document in one monitor, and another on the second monitor.The two monitors make the Iconia a hefty device -- at 6.1 pounds it's unlikely to be the device you throw in your bag for your commute.

Think of it as a Star Trek: The Next Generation control panel come to life. Acer designed the interface overlay, dubbed Acer Ring, makes it easy to access document and Web pages, resize pictures, and navigate your content library; an SDK for it won't be available until December, so for now you'll be limited to whatever customized software Acer has designed.

From the demo presentation in New York, it appears as if Acer has put a lot of effort into providing touch-optimized experiences, though. For example, put five fingers on the display that's flush with the surface, and up comes the Acer Ring interface for accessing your photos and music, and for browsing the Web.

In particular, Acer is emphasizing consuming and accessing your multimedia content easily, especially given its introduction of its own content store, Alive, due in the U.S. in Q2 2011, and Clear-fi, a device networking intiative to make it simple to access your content across devices and popular Web services like Facebook and Flickr.

Acer says the Iconia may be available in the United States by Christmas, or January at the latest. The device will go on sale in Europe sooner, where it'll be priced at 1500 euros or 1500 pounds. The U.S. price is still to be determined. The Iconia will run a Core i5 480 CPU with 4GB of RAM and a 640GB hard drive. It will have two USB 2 ports, one USB 3, HDMI-out, a 1.3-megapixel Webcam and built-in Bluetooth.

While Iconia's unique design captured the bulk of attention, Acer also introduced 7-inch and 10-inch Android tablets, a 10-inch Windows 7 tablet, and a 5-inch Android smartphone the company referred to as a "mini-tablet." Availability for those will be further into 2011. The Windows tablet will likely be by February, according to Acer CEO and president Gianfranco Lanci. "For the others, it's less under our control. It depends on when the Android tablet operating system is available," says Lanci. "We don't want to release a tablet with a phone OS."
Acer reveals Iconia dual-screen laptop / tablet, Clear.fi cloud-based media sharing system -- Engadget
Acer Brings Dual-Screen Laptop to Reality - PCWorld
Acer comes out swinging; 7 and 10-inch Android tablets due in April 2011 | BGR | Boy Genius Report

 

[shineonyoucrazydiamond]

It looks nice..

 

[Martian2]

 

[SQ8]

Me want it

 

[LaBong]

Can touch screen withstand the pressure of heavily typing? Specially when chatting.

 

[Martian2]

Acer tablet PC launching on November 23rd with price ranging from $299 to $699. Acer tablet to be backed with an app store.

Acer Challenges Apple’s IPad, Unveils Three Tablet Computers - BusinessWeek

"Acer Challenges Apple’s iPad, Unveils Three Tablet Computers
November 23, 2010, 11:37 PM EST
By Hugo Miller and Katie Hoffmann

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Acer Inc., the world’s second-largest computer maker, unveiled a lineup of three tablet devices in a bid to challenge Apple Inc.’s market-leading iPad.

Two of the tablets will be based on Google Inc.’s Android platform and feature 7-inch and 10.1-inch screens, while the third 10.1-inch-display device will run on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows software, Taipei-based Acer said in New York yesterday.

Acer, which also makes mobile phones, aims to grab about 10 percent of the market for tablets that bridge the gap between laptops and smartphones such as Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone. Apple demonstrated the appeal of such devices by selling 3 million iPads in the first 80 days after the product debuted in April.

The new tablet computers may appeal to price-sensitive consumers, Angela Hsiang, an analyst with KGI Securities Co. in Taipei, said by telephone. “The debut highlights Acer’s official entry into the tablet computer market,” said Hsiang, who rates the stock “outperform.”

Acer joins a field dominated by Apple, which had a 95 percent share of the tablet market last quarter, according to Strategy Analytics. Samsung Electronics Co. recently released its Galaxy Tab and RIM plans to release its 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook next quarter.

“This is a market that’s still not fully known, not fully satisfied,” Jim Wong, Acer’s head of information-technology products, said yesterday. The company expects 40 million to 50 million tablets will be sold worldwide next year, he said.

With the 9.7-inch iPad priced between $499 and $829, consumers looking for cheaper devices may be attracted to other tablets below $400, Hsiang said. Still, it will take some time before the new products can significantly add to Acer’s revenue, she said.

Hedging Bets

“It’s a wide-open market and an opportunity for Acer to make itself better known to a North American market,” said Roger Entner, head of telecom research at Nielsen Co.

Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci may be trying to hedge his bets by releasing devices in different sizes. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said last month that devices such as the PlayBook are “dead on arrival” because they are too small to compete with the iPad, which has a 9.7-inch screen.

Acer, which trails Hewlett-Packard Co. in global computer shipments, rose 0.5 percent to NT$90.20 at 11:54 a.m. on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The stock has lost 6.1 percent this year, compared with a 1.5 percent gain by the benchmark Taiex index.

The two Android tablets will be available in April and the Microsoft device will go on sale in February. All three will offer Wi-Fi connectivity and allow users to surf the Internet using a 3G connection. Wong said the tablets would likely be in the previously stated range of $299 to $699.

Acer yesterday also released a smartphone with a 4.8-inch screen based on Android that they touted as a phone with the “soul of a tablet.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Hugo Miller in Toronto at hugomiller@bloomberg.net; Katie Hoffmann in New York at khoffmann4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net"

 

[desiman]

that is beautiful, will surely get it when it comes out.