ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime - the tablet that Acer and Lenovo are trying to compete against. (Image: ASUS/Supplied)
A new report is claiming that Acer and Lenovo are ready to launch their quad-core tablets in the first quarter of next year in order to compete against ASUS’ quad-core tablet offering, the Eee Pad Transformer Prime; and Samsung.
DigiTimes is reporting that Acer and Lenovo’s tablets will run on Google Android 4.0 – codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich – and will feature NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 quad-core processor. The very same processor is used in the Eee Pad Transformer Prime. They are also expecting the pricing to be somewhere in US$459-599 price range, so at least somewhat competitive with the Apple iPad.
However, what’s even interesting is the comment made by their anonymous source: they are releasing the tablets to “defend their brands” after their performance in the dual-core processor tablet race were “not as good as expected”. So essentially, in order to keep up with a strong Samsung and a much-stronger Apple, these players are constantly releasing tablets in order to maintain their name in the race – rather than just release and then let it wither away into obscurity as a tablet manufacturer.
The supposed release also does give an indication that we could possibly see an announcement during CES in January. So, keep an eye out of such announcement from Acer and Lenovo about this.