Acer this week started shipping
Packard Bell is a name you probably haven't heard in awhile. Now a subsidiary of Acer, Packard Bell was once a major player in the U.S. desktop market, right up until the company packed its bags and left North America back in 2000. The general consensus among power users was 'good riddance,' and if you're still of that opinion, don't worry, Packard Bell isn't making its way back to the States. The company is, however, releasing a tablet in Europe that bears a striking resemblance to Acer's recently announced Iconia Tab A500.
While the full swarm of Honeycomb tablets buzzes further off on the horizon, a few scouts are arriving to test the hospitableness of the consumer environment. Sales of the Motorola Xoom have been sluggish so far, and it may be due to a price that does little to sway potential iPad 2 buyers. The latest experiment in Honeycomb tablet market penetration, the Acer Iconia Tab A500, arrives today at BestBuy.com for pre-orders at a tantalizing sub-iPad price of $449.99. Pre-orders at Best Buy stores will begin on April 14, and the final onsale date will be April 24 -- exclusively at Best Buy stores and online.
Wtih all the recent emphasis on touchscreen computing and space saving designs, all-in-one PCs are suddenly in vogue. AIOs are typically more attractive than traditional desktop PCs and are great for placing in areas where you normally wouldn't have a PC, like in the kitchen or other non home office locations. But one area where AIOs still need to improve is in overall performance. Acer thinks it has it all figured out with its new Aspire Z5761.
Playing out like a bad April Fool's prank, Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci is stepping down from his position with the company after failing to come to an agreement with Acer's board on various business priorities. Acer made the surprise announcement on Thursday, saying that Lanci's resignation was approved at a meeting of its Board of Directors and is in effect immediately.Acer has finally and formally pulled the lid off of its unique Windows 7 dual-screen tablet. The Iconia-6120 Touchbook, which sports an Intel Core i5 CPU, 640GB drive, HDMI out, USB 3.0, and twin 14-inch LCDs made of Gorilla Glass, will cost $1,200 in both Canada and the United States and will be available in April. The Iconia-6120 is available for pre-sale now at major retailers.
Acer wants to be a major player in the emerging tablet market, which will require capable devices, tantalizing price points, and carrier support. The company is ahead of the game on that latter bit, with AT&T announcing plans to carry Acer's Iconia Tab A501 4G tablet later this year. When the dust settles, Acer hopes to have grabbed a 10 percent share of the tablet market.
Acer rode the netbook wave to coast past Dell in the global PC market in 2009, but its stay at the number two spot was brief as Dell came back in the second quarter of 2010 to retake that position. If one fad led to Acer’s sudden rise in 2009, another triggered its slide past Dell in 2010. 
Acer didn't forget about its ultra-thin Timeline family of notebooks, the company was just waiting for the whole Sandy Bridge situation to settle down. Now that it has, and now that Intel has been shipping revised 6-series boards to OEMs, Acer is getting ready to refresh its Timeline notebooks with a release scheduled for sometime in April.
We're already two months into 2011, but this could end up being a make-or-break year for the relatively new Windows Phone 7 platform. Acer's betting on the former and has plans to launch several WP7 devices sometime this year, as well as new Android models, says Aymar de Lencquesaing, president of Acer's Smart Handheld Business Group. Clump it all together and Acer reckons it will ship several million smartphones before the year is up.
