Now as we get ready for the launch of a third major player in the tablet market (Microsoft). We are seeing the fruits of their labors. Apple opted to go with a much more battery draining retina display, but in return have gotten some very nice results. Meanwhile some of the competition has waited for other technology (IPS, AFFS, etc.) to catch up in terms of resolution. Now we have AFFS+ and IPS panels with ppi that is high enough to get us to 1920x1200 on a 10.1-inch 16:10 display.

This is what we are seeing from Acer as they have announced a new ARM based tablet the A700. At about 25% less than the same capacity iPad the A700 with its 1920x1200 display brags about being “Full HD” (this tagline means it is full 1080p capable). Acer announced this tablet at CES this year and already has them on pre-order for $450 for a 32GB model.

But simply adding in a new a cleaner display is not all that Acer is doing to put a dent into iPad sales. The $450 price tag for the 32GB model is still $50 less than a 16GB iPad. Meanwhile the laundry list of specs makes the A700 look even more impressive and includes;
Tegra 3 Quad (Qunit?) Core SoC
1GB RAM
Android 4.0
Dolby Mobile 3
Micro-HDMI out
GPS
e-compass
802.11 b/g/n Wireless Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
5MP Rear Camera with Flash
1MP front facing camera for video conferencing
Micro USB port for charging

It is a pretty cool product for a very good price. If Apple’s competition can continue to undercut the price of their (Apple’s) low end offering then they will be sure to put a dent into Apple’s market share long before the 2016 mark presented by some analysts. Now if Samsung, Asus and a few others can get their Full HD products to the market soon we might see some very interesting times in the tablet market and that is before Microsoft enters the fray.

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