Acer launches hybrid tablets to beat falling PC sales

Acer, India’s No.3 PC-maker, unveiled four computing devices on Tuesday suggesting that it may be shifting its focus away from plain vanilla PCs and notebooks to serve the needs of the phablet generation.

The high-speed tablets boast long battery life of up to 13 hours, much higher than the usual 3-4 hours. Acer tied up with Intel for Hasswell processor 4 technology which is usually used in PCs, smartphones and tablets, providing interoperability across the device spectrum.

The Hasswell processors are expected to power 20% of Acer’s devices going forward. Acer plans to launch nine Hasswell devices – four of them in August, including the slimmest notebook featuring corning gorilla glass, a feature used only in smartphones till date, and the rest in September.

Of Tuesday’s launches, the notebook Aspire E1 has a 15.6-inch screen and is priced Rs 38,999; the Acer Iconia W3 is the world’s first 8.1-inch tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard and Windows 8 OS, priced Rs 30,499 (without keyboard); the Acer Aspire P3, a 11.6-inch ‘convertible’, can be used as a tablet or notebook, and is priced Rs 54,499; and the Aspire R7, a 15.6-inch notebook, can be turned into a portable tablet, and is priced Rs 74,999.

Acer expects its notebook sales to rise from 5% this quarter to 20% by mid next year, thanks to rapid uptake of hybrids and ultra-books in the market.

According to Acer, its new products, now available at retail stores, combine content consumption with content creation at much lower price points than competing brands.

S Rajendran, CMO of Acer India, said, “Tablets and smartphones do not offer stationary computing, so customers are postponing refreshing their notebooks by a year or two, to go in for tablets later. To bridge the gap between notebooks and tablets, Acer is offering dualism in the form of the R7 device that can alternate between a notebook, tablet, stationary PC, complete with docking station, keyboard and a swivel display touch-screen.”