Acer to Penetrate U.S. Market with 4G Tablet PC

Taipei, March 25, 2011 (CENS)--The Taiwan-based Acer Inc., one of the world's top three PC vendors, has announced its cooperation with U.S.'s telecom company AT&T to penetrate its 4G tablet iconia Tab A501 into the U.S. market starting in the second quarter of this year.

Suffering a sharp shrinkage in sales of netbook PCs in the U.S. due to the rise of Apple Inc.'s iPad, Acer is forced to switch focus onto tablet PCs and hence decides to join hands with AT&T, one of Apple's major telecom partners, to fight back against the competitor, noted market observers.

The 4G tablet jointly promoted by Acer and AT&T is built with a 10.1-inch touch screen and Nvidia's Tegra 250 dual-core processor, and installed with Google Android 3.0 operating system. The biggest functional features of the device include its interconnection with TVs and a built-in 4G LTE (long term evolution) modem. The device will be promoted along with AT&T launching its LTE services, with the selling price having yet to be determined.

In addition to AT&T, Acer has also cooperated with Verizon to promote its iconia Tab A500, which is Acer's first tablet featuring wireless transmission based on the 4G LTE network. The cooperation was officially announced at CES (Consumer Electronics Show), held from January 10 to 13 in Las Vegas, paving the way for the firm to tap the U.S.'s tablet segment.

To accelerate its foray into the emerging segment, the firm is scheduled to launch its first Android 3.0 tablet, Picasso, by the end of March, which, the firm's Taiwan president Scott Lin confirmed, has been popularly ordered by retailers so far, according to the firm's Taiwan president Scott Lin.