Debt problems in Europe have prompted Acer to increase its focus in other territories in 2012, which will include Brazil, India, Indonesia, and other emerging markets. Acer appears particularly interested in increasing its brand in Brazil, where the OEM aims to ship 1 million PCs by the end of the year, or twice the volume it shipped in 2011.

In May 2011, Hewlett-Packard said it hadn't found a "value proposition" in Intel's Thunderbolt (formerly known as Light Peak) interface, and come to find out, Thunderbolt controllers are 10 times more expensive than USB 3.0 chips. Big whoop, HP's stance isn't getting in the way of other system makers jumping on the high-speed interface.

Acer might be splitting hairs over a few millimeters here, but the company claims its new Aspire S5 Ultrabook is the thinnest the world has ever seen. The S5 is a 13.3-inch hunk of notebook that measures a scant 15mm at its thickest point and weighs less than 3 pounds. It has a magnesium-aluminum alloy cover and palmrest with a brushed metallic motif. Acer put considerable thought into the S5's appearance, molding it with "clean and ultra-fluid contours" that can be seen from all angles.

The days of having to spend a small fortune in order to have a tablet that doesn't suck are over. With the introduction of the Iconia Tab A200, Acer throws its hat into the ring of low(er) cost slates. It's priced at $330, and while that's higher than Amazon's Kindle Fire ($199) and Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet ($249), the A200 is a full-size slate measuring 10.1 inches with a promised upgrade path to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).