Acer Inc. rolled out two new products – a tablet and a dual-screen touchbook- in Manila, Philippines Thursday as it thrives to get its share in the rapidly growing tablet market. The Iconia-484G64ns and the Iconia Tab W500 runs on the Widows 7 operating system and is designed for content consumption. They come with a “ring control interface” providing shortcuts for certain programs.
The Iconia-484G64ns comes with a dual 14-inch multi-touch LCD screens allowing users to watch several videos simultaneously or view web pages without the need to scroll up or down. It has an extended monitor that also serves as a virtual keyboard with touchpad, numeric keypad, and handwriting mode.
It is powered by an Intel Core i5-480M processor and 640 GB hard disk drive. The Iconia-484G64ns also has a camera and includes Bluetooth, LAN, and Wi-Fi capabilities. Weighing 2.8 kilograms, the Iconia-484G64ns is valued at P70,000. Acer admits that the cost may be too expensive for some as they will be unveiling a smaller, lighter, and more affordable version in the coming months.
On the other hand, the Iconia Tab W500 is recognized as the first Windows 7-powered tablet to be unveiled in the Philippines. It can be used as a slate or netbook using a dockable keyboard. It is powered by an AMD C-Series C-50 processor, an AMD Radeon HD 6250 graphics card with 256MB dedicated memory, and a 2GB DDR3 memory chip with a 32GB SDD capability.
With its weight of 1 kilograms, the Acer Iconia Tab W500 is much heavier compared to the Apple iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Acer is yet to announce its price but the company said that it will more or less cost the same as its competitors.
Apple has been lording it over in the tablet market with its iPad. The company has recently unveiled its second-generation iPad, with approximately a million units sold in the opening weekend of its US launch.
Apple will roll out the iPad 2 in international markets Friday, with customers expected to line up outside stores that sell the iPad 2 in different countries.
