Acer Android tablet spied

A TABLET PC from Acer that runs an Android OS has been spotted.

Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci showed the device in a keynote presentation at an Acer press event. According to Shuffle Gazine attendees, the 7-inch screen tablet will run Android and will be released to market in the last quarter of this year.

The tablet has a colour screen and might come with 3G, given Lanci's reported comments that the firm is looking for telcos to support the device. He did not mention a price for the tablet.

Acer has been reticent about calling a tablet a tablet but has long claimed that it will be releasing an Ipad competitor. Is this going to be it?

We reported this week on Acer's Aspire 1825PT device. It looks exactly like a tablet. But Acer insists it's a laptop that just so happens to have a swivel screen with tablet functionality. This is the same game HP played a couple of years ago when tablet was still a dirty word.

Last Friday, Acer told The INQUIRER that it will launch a tablet device but it wouldn't give us more information. Rumours point to a device launch at Computex in June, so Lanci's demo of the 7-inch Android tablet might be a foreshadowing of what it plans to announce there.

Shuffle Gazine said Lanci referred to the device as a tablet. But our Spidey senses aren't detecting Ipad killer here yet. µ