Acer is ready to launch its Intel-Android Tablet by July

Acer is all set to launch the Android 3.0 or Honeycomb based 10-inch tablet by July.This report gives us a new perspective of the entire tablet market dynamics. According to DigiTimes, the Honeycomb tablet powered by Intel’s Oak Trail chip is under mass production at Compal Electronics. Sources also reveal that Asutek and Lenovo might follow suit soon. This in a way indicates that the days of exclusive partnership between Android and ARM might be over and it also brings to light the increasing rift between Microsoft and Intel.

acer tablet pc

Reports also reveal that Intel is actually proving subsidies as well as technical assistance to the comparatively smaller players in the field. A week earlier Intel announced that its long-standing partner Microsoft will be launching their ARM based Windows 8. The new reports have elicited a somewhat negative reaction from Microsoft, which has declared that Intel’s comments are factually inaccurate.

The Intel-Microsoft partnership has been steadily losing ground in the tablet battle against the Android-ARM combo. The Windows based tablets, according to reports, are heavy, bulky and power sucking gadgets. This has set alarm bells ringing in both companies and as a result we now find Microsoft trying to pair up with ARM while Intel is wooing Android. The only way in which Intel can carve its own space in the tablet market is by pushing the downstream players in the Android zone.

The much talked about Windows 8, which is the most updated version of its operating system (OS), will be launched by Microsoft in the coming year. Intel’s claim the ARM-Windows 8 will not support the legacy apps, actually undermines Microsoft’s aim to streamline and tailor Windows for the tablet. This can have a negative impact because Windows as an operating system for tablets is considered as one that is encumbered with too many features. The fact that ARM based tablets cannot support multi-tasking features, or multiple OS platforms, is also not good news for Microsoft. All this only indicates that the Windows-ARM combo might not be a winning strategy in the tablet arena.

Microsoft has been really struggling to deliver a successful tablet and at present, both Intel and Microsoft are trying out options to face the tablet challenge. Interestingly, both these companies are wooing each other’s competitors in the hope of meeting this challenge. Microsoft has been slow in responding to the need of tailoring Windows for other devices, but now that the non-Windows tablets have started affecting Windows PC sales , they have finally woken up.

Via: DigiTimes/IBTimes