Acer cuts tablet shipments by 60 per cent

TAIWANESE HARDWARE OUTFIT Acer has announced a 60 per cent cut to its target for tablet shipments this year.

According to a report at Reuters, Chairman JT Wang told reporters after a shareholders meeting that the new target for tablet shipments is 2.5 to 3 million instead of the 5 to 7 million set at the beginning of the year.

Acer is expected to sell 800,000 tablets in both the third and fourth quarters of this year. This number seems pretty insignificant when you consider that the Ipad 2 sold one million units over its first weekend.

"The third quarter will be considerably more stable. It will be similar to the second quarter or better," Wang said at the meeting. "The fourth quarter will be even better."

Acer is engaged in what's proving to be a busy and difficult battle for tablet market share. Its range of devices includes tablets running both Windows and the Android operating system.

The Iconia Tab W500 seems to have had the biggest advertising push and is a hybrid between a tablet and a netbook. Whilst this might be a clever idea and appeal to consumers torn between the two it has some stiff competition.

Apart from the fact that every tablet is being compared to the Ipad 2, its main rival is the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, which is another hybrid that runs Google's Android operating system. The Transformer has had much better reviews - we gave it 10 out of 10 at The INQUIRER - and is cheaper, so it's a no brainer to choose between the two unless you can't live without Windows.

Other than tablets Acer has a number of new laptops coming out including the Ethos and Timelinex series. It also has one of the first Chromebooks that will come to the market in the UK, but we'll have to wait and see how popular these will prove to be. µ