Looks like the Android tablet wars is heating up – Taiwanese manufacturer Acer is said to be planning to release a $99 Android tablet early next year. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the new tablet will not be as sophisticated as the low-cost tablet offerings from Google and the ASUS made Nexus 7, but it seems that that is not the point of this particular tablet. Acer plans to compete with white-box China manufacturers in developing countries like ours, and hopes that their brand identity will dissuade buyers from buying generic China-made white-box tablets.
The new tablet doesn’t have the newest toys, in fact it makes do with just a 1024 x 600 resolution screen and 1.2GHz dual-core processor. But if Acer stays as close to the $99 price point as possible locally (there’s always added cost because of shipping and taxes, after all) then the company might just have a chance at beating the cheap China tablets that’s been going around nowadays. Filipinos still like buying branded devices more than cheap ones, and we’re sure that there’s a killing to be made for the sub Php 10,000 tablet market.
Source: WSJ