Acer continues to be anything but impressed by tablets and the company CEO has sent some new kicks and punches toward the tablet makers. CEO JT Wang has said the tablet fever is fading and that ultrabooks with Windows 8 will give notebooks a revival. He also promises ultrabooks for only $799.
Acer hasn’t been doing that well lately and reported a loss of 234.3 million dollar in Q2, the company is often correct with its predictions as the VP said American PC makers will die out over the coming 10-15 years 1.5 years ago. Even if the prophecy hasn’t been fulfilled yet, things are leaning in that direction with Chinese Lenovo as the middle piece and an American HP that wants to leave the market despite being the biggest around.
Acer CEO JT Wang says the interest in tablets is dropping and that this product model, that targets media consumption and entertainment, will lose momentum when the installment base reach a certain level. JT Wang says that consumers will be more interested in upgrading and swap it for a notebook.
Interestingly Wang says that Windows 8, whose touch interface and ARM supports, are two of the hottest news, which will boost noteooks more than tablets. And that Acer’s own surveys show there is a great interest in Ultrabooks. Intel’s Ultrabook concept can create extremely thin (less than 21mm in profile) but still powerful and energy efficient notebooks.
Earlier the component costs have been a big problem, but Wang has according to Digitimes revealed that Acer has plans to launch an Ultrabook in September that will cost as little as 799 dollar. A lot less than the $999 that was discussed for earlier Ultrabook models.
Ultrabooks is not expected to reach any major sales volumes until 2011, but already in 2012 Wang estimates that 25-35% of Acer’s notebooks will be Ultrabooks. What will happen to the tablet venture was not revealed.
Acer Aspire 3951 measures 13 mm in profile with aluminum case, but will cost more than $799.
