Acer unveils US$115 budget tablet

Want China Times, CNA 2014-02-27

The Iconia One7. (Photo/Acer)

Taiwanese computer maker Acer unveiled its cheapest tablet computer to date Wednesday when it announced the Iconia One7 with a price tag of just NT$3,490 (US$115).

Taking aim at the low-cost tablet market favored by price-sensitive customers, Acer said in an emailed statement that it began shipping a "limited volume" of the One7 to local distributors Wednesday and expects the 7-inch tablet to go on sale in early March in Taiwan and later in the month in China and other Asia-Pacific markets.

The Iconia One7 packs a Cortex-A9 dual-core 1.5GHz chipset from Taiwan's VIA Technologies, a 1024x600-pixel screen, 16GB of built-in memory and a micro-SD card slot. The company said it supports high-definition 1080p video playback, despite the relatively low WVGA screen resolution.

The One7's specifications hold up to competitors in the 7-inch low-price bracket, including its cross-town rival Asustek Computer's US$139 MeMO Pad HD 7 and US online retailer Amazon's US$139 Kindle Fire HD.

Acer shares closed flat at NT$18.05 (US$0.59) Wednesday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange ahead of the announcement.

The struggling Taiwanese PC maker has aimed for explosive growth in its tablet computer business for 2014 despite intensified competition from other low-cost Android tablet vendors.

Maverick Shih, president of Acer's BYOC (Build Your Own Cloud) and Tablet Business Group, told the media on Feb. 5 that the company "will be working hard to achieve aggressive growth" and is eyeing 10 million tablets shipped this year.

For comparison, the Commercial Times estimated that the company shipped only half of that number last year, citing sources within Acer.

A Dec. 3 report by research firm IDC noted that while the worldwide market has embraced 7-inch tablets, they will have to compete with the increasingly large smartphones, some of which are nearly as big at 6 inches.