Taipei, June 3 (CNA) Taiwanese computer maker Acer Inc. unveiled a series of new products Monday, including an 8-inch Windows tablet and a 5.7-inch phablet.
At an international press conference held under the theme of "Redefining Technology Through Touch," Acer showcased a wide array of its latest products one day ahead of Asia's largest computer trade show.
Acer Chairman J.T. Wang said on the sidelines of the launch ceremony that touch technology applications have become all the rage, and this will continue in the future.
"It's all about touch," he said, adding that the launch of the new products is expected to meet consumer demand.
The 8-inch Iconia W3, one of the first 8-inch Windows tablets on the market, weighs 500 grams and is less than half an inch thick. With a battery life of eight hours, the device can beam out 720p video playback on a 1,280 x 800 display.
The tablet, equipped with Intel's dual-core 1.8GHz Atom Z2760 processor, also comes with an optional full-size keyboard.
Wang described the joint collaboration of Acer, Microsoft and Intel as "a breakthrough" and expressed high optimism about further innovation.
Amid lackluster market reception since the new Microsoft operating system was launched at the end of October 2012, the U.S.-based software giant said it is planning to revamp the OS so that consumers will learn how to use the new platform more quickly.
The product launch came after Tami Reller, Microsoft's chief marketing and financial officer, conceded that it was not easy for consumers to get used to the platform.
Many business users have been urging Microsoft to restore the "Start" button in its latest OS. In the earlier Windows versions, the icon appears in the lower-left corner of the computer screen, but is not visible in the latest software.
To stir up buying interest, Microsoft has lowered its royalties by US$20-US$30 (NT$600-NT$1,000) on touch notebook computers 11.6 inches or smaller, while offering incentives to distributors of Windows 8 tablet computers.
Meanwhile, Acer said that with touch devices becoming the mainstream in the PC market, it will continue to unveil tablets, touch ultrabook computers, and combination PCs and smartphones, all running either Windows 8 or Google's Android operating system.
The company also displayed its first phone-tablet hybrid product, the Liquid S1, with the aim of gaining traction in the fast-growing hybrid market.
The new quad-core phablet features a 5.7-inch 720p display, weighs 195 grams and runs on Google's Android 4.2 operating system.
Acer projected that the global phablet market will grow to about 10 million units in 2013, up from between 7 million and 8 million units last year.
Dale Gai, a Taipei-based analyst at Barclays Plc, said earlier that Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea appears to be the early winner in the hybrid market with its Note series, based on its display component strength.
The hybrid category will trigger a new product cycle and spur more orders in the first half of 2013 for laggards in the mobile market, such as Taiwan's HTC Corp. and South Korea's LG Electronics Inc., Gai wrote in a recent report.
He forecast that smartphones over 5 inches will account for 15 percent of total smartphone sales in 2013 and 20 percent in 2015, compared with 5 percent currently.
(By James Lee)
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