Acer, Lenovo Quad-Core Tablets Coming in Q1

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Acer and Lenovo have apparently scheduled the launch of their quad-core Tegra 3 tablets for the first quarter of next year.

These devices are expected to be in the range of $460 and $600, according to Digitimes, and are intended to be direct competition for Asus's EeePad Transformer Prime. However, it won't be plain sailing for the these tablet manufacturers. Digitimes sources are concerned as to how successful the tablets can be in a market where Apple and Amazon are believed to account for the lion's share. These sources said that non-Apple tablets may only account for 10 to 15 percent of the entire tablet market.

Additionally, though the excitement surrounding quad-core tablets is palpable, it is unclear just how much value a quad-core processor has in the tablet market, where hardware horsepower isn't as important as it is in a PC. Tablets have established a perception of 'good-enough' computing and consumers tend to care little about the RAM or the actual processor in such a device if it does not offer any useful application or advantages. Manufacturers such as Samsung, Asus, Acer and Lenovo will need to overcome this by establishing an experience perception and developing a marketing strategy that describes how the quad-core processor enables experience.

Hardware alone may not help Android tablet makers much. It is probably much more important to bring the price of Tegra 3 tablets down to the $300 mark as Nvidia's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang recently predicted.

Douglas Perry

Douglas Perry is an author and journalist from Portland, Oregon. His many articles have appeared in the likes of Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, The Oregonian, and several newspapers. He has covered topics including security, hardware, and cars, and has written five books. In his spare time, he enjoys watching The Sopranos.

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14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • de5_Roy
    arent the pc makers getting out of tablet business next year?
    so far only asus has released a competent android tablet - transformer. rest of them are too costly and not up to the task.
    pc makers are better off competing against the tablets with ultrabooks.
    Reply
  • joytech22
    de5_royarent the pc makers getting out of tablet business next year?so far only asus has released a competent android tablet - transformer. rest of them are too costly and not up to the task.pc makers are better off competing against the tablets with ultrabooks.
    Tablets, ultrabooks, laptops, netbooks, phones and desktops are all in their own category.
    One may argue Laptops, netbooks and ultrabooks are in the same category but they have their differences and are aimed at different markets.

    Back on topic now.. I can't wait to see some real performance measurements from these tablets, better yet some of the graphics this new Tegra 3 will be capable of (Besides that demo with the clown and ball)
    Reply
  • aaron88_7
    The hardware isn't what needs to be improved on modern tablets, it's the software and price holding them back. Aside from tech junkies like us, most people are not interested in spending $400-500 on a tablet that can't do the things a laptop at that price can.

    Google really needs to make some serious improvements to Android, and while Ice Cream Sandwhich should be a good improvement it may not be enough. These tablets need to prove they aren't just boardroom toys but can also be highly productive tools that can rival the productivity of a laptop.

    Until the software matures tablets will continue to be a difficult sell, no matter how many cores the processor has.
    Reply
  • will it be with 3G modem ?
    Reply
  • del35
    I have a Toshiba Thrive tablet. Lots of connectivity. Beats the iPad by leaps and bounds. I find however that tablets are a burden and seldom use it. What do I use most? My 4+ inch screen android smartphone which I also use to read digital books, email, twitter, and lots of other things. The other device I use alot and carry around is my netbook. If I have to do something requiring lots of processor power, I will work on it with my desktop. My loptop mostly stays at home, but I still use it. What I almost never use is my tablet.


    Not sure what the hype is about tablets and why we need a quad-core one.
    Reply
  • tuffjuff
    Go to Wal-Mart or Best Buy and use just about any Android tablet, and aside from the most expensive ones (and sometimes even then) they all have varying levels of lag in the interface and with general operation. Some of this is the inefficiency in the Android OS, but part of it has to be the hardware.

    My household went through about a dozen Android phones across two carriers before giving up and turning to "the dark side" over a year ago, deciding to try an iPhone. It amazes me how to this day the 3GS is faster/non-laggy than even $200 Android phones I've used, and I have yet to use an Android tablet that doesn't suffer from awful lag. My brief understanding is that the majority of the issue with this involves the custom Android OS that companies use, and that rooting (?) your phone/device and basically hacking or modding the software fixes it.

    Here's hoping a quad core can make you not have to mod it?
    Reply
  • aaron88_7
    Rooting doesn't really fix it, it just lets you put on a newer release not supported by the tablet/phone manufacturer. The newer release is not always an official release, but "based on" the official release with some changes, (making it a custom ROM).

    Some custom ROMs are better than others, but the ones for my phone suck so it hasn't helped it at all. Still crappy battery life and just as laggy as before. I'm no Apple fan at all, but I'm much more open to buying an iPhone now than before I bought this crappy Android phone.

    This all goes back to crappy software keeping tablets from being great. Apple's stuff has good interfaces that work well, but they still aren't productive and are kept inside Apple's bubble. It would be nice to have an OS that truly flexed the tablets hardware and offered serious productivity.
    Reply
  • invlem
    I'd be more open to apple products if they weren't being artificially crippled by apple.

    Hardware wise I think apple's products are more robust, but software wise the way Apple restricts the developers in what they are allowed to do, really ends up turning me away from their product.

    When I can see what my android phone is capable of with a few additional programs, its pretty insane, full LAN support, file copying to/from servers/computers, media beaming to ANY DLNA device, I can playback any video format on my phone (mkv or otherwise).

    I can't think of anything the iPhone can do that my android can't.

    I'll admit the android interface is a bit rough around the edges, but it has so much more functionality.

    I understand the appeal of Apple products, their interface is slick, and very user friendly, but for more advanced, computer savvy people, I firmly believe an Android device is the way to go, because the platform offers functionality that, well quite frankly Apple users probably don't / won't ever use.
    Reply
  • everygamer
    Kinda makes sense that Non-Apple tablets make up only 15% of the market, the iPad's really didn't have much completion fro the first year to year and a half from a big brand. The Xoom's were only sold with cellular contracts for the first six months which scared away most customers due to the extra data plan. Samsung/ASUS have brought to market the first real competition and that has only been in the last 3 to 5 months.

    Keep in mind that the iphone/itouch has this same type of lead on the market, and all estimates point to Android phones over taking Apple in total devices by end Q1 next year.

    So it just remains to be seen if the tablet market is going to go through the same shift the phone market has, where Android will eventually replace the Apple as the dominant platform after playing a little catchup.
    Reply
  • everygamer
    tuffjuffGo to Wal-Mart or Best Buy and use just about any Android tablet, and aside from the most expensive ones (and sometimes even then) they all have varying levels of lag in the interface and with general operation. Some of this is the inefficiency in the Android OS, but part of it has to be the hardware.My household went through about a dozen Android phones across two carriers before giving up and turning to "the dark side" over a year ago, deciding to try an iPhone. It amazes me how to this day the 3GS is faster/non-laggy than even $200 Android phones I've used, and I have yet to use an Android tablet that doesn't suffer from awful lag. My brief understanding is that the majority of the issue with this involves the custom Android OS that companies use, and that rooting (?) your phone/device and basically hacking or modding the software fixes it.Here's hoping a quad core can make you not have to mod it?
    1. ASUS Transformer and Samsung Galaxy Tab are very responsive devices, own the Transformer and play with our IT departments Galaxy Tab.

    2. The tablet market is currently going through a change, the tablets you have seen so far are most of the companies first attempts and they have not invested heavily because the market demand was not there. With the quad core devices coming out in the next 30 days to 6 months you will see Android devices that exceed the iPad 2 in pretty much every category.

    3. A year ago there were only about 5 to 6 Android phones on the market, and of those only the Sprint EVO 4G, Verizon HTC Incredible, Droid and Droid X were decent. The Android phones being sold now are not of the same bread, check out the Razr next time you are in a store.

    The point is, Apple had a 18 to 24 month head start in both the phone market and tablet markets, they set a great trend, but they are not going to be able to keep pace with the R&D that dozens of companies can invest in hardware, its just not realistic. This is why the PC became the market standard over Mac in the 1980's, its the same reason why Android devices will surpass Apple in early 2012.
    Reply