Taiwanese manufacturers Asus and Acer are gearing up for a higher demand of Android tablet devices this year. Both have expressed confidence in being able to ship no less than 10 million of these in 2013. Analysts are also predicting a sharp increase in demand for low cost tablets, something corroborated with a mad rush among manufacturers to launch low cost tablets running the Android platform. Acer has already launched the Acer Iconia B1, the two versions of which will be priced at $150 and $179. Asus already found success with the Nexus tablet devices in the low coast segment, and has also launched a budget tablet of its own in the form of the MeMO Pad range. On offer is a 7 and 10 inch version priced competitively at around $195 and $300 respectively.
Among the other bigwigs in the business that have joined the tablet segment is HP’s recently launched Slate 7, priced affordably at just $179. Lenovo has established itself as the second biggest tablet vendor in the US primarily through budget priced tablet devices. Summing up the market mood, Acer CEO J.T. Wang said, “The market is mature, and it’s a good opportunity for Acer and other players too.”
The general approach with the new range of budget tablets is to cut corners on offering fancy features like a high end camera while ensuring decent to good levels of performance. This will ensure the tablet PCs will make for a good buy for general computing tasks along with watching videos, listening to music, reading ebooks, or playing games.
Sovan Mandal is the senior tablet and tech corespondent for goodereader.com. He brings a international approach to news that is not just applicable to the North American market, but also Asia, India, Europe and others. Sovy brings his own writing flavor to the website and is interested in Science Fiction, Technology and Writing. Any questions, send an email