Acer Readies Iconia Tablet

According to Russian site NoMobile.ru, the next-generation Acer tablet, which is slimmer, lighter, and more powerful than its predecessor, will hit the scene at the Consumer Electronics Show and be ready for release as early as March of this year.

The tablet has a Tegra 3 processor, courtesy of Nvidia, and features like high-display resolution, two cameras including a five-megapixel rear lens, and a 10-hour battery life are expected to elevate the status of the device.

Apple's iPad continued to dominate tablet sales in 2011, despite the rising competition. Still, Acer's earlier generation Iconia Tab, delivered a respectable 800,000 units the first half of the year. That bright spot is dampened a bit by the fact that Apple bested this nearest competition handily, shipping 40 million units sold in the same time period.

A slew of tablets are expected to flood the tablet market in 2012, following the success of the latest entries, like Barnes & Noble's Nook Color, and Amazon's Kindle Fire, which proved to be big holiday sellers and represent a growing sector of fuller-featured devices priced on the lower end.

While pricing details are unknown, the Iconia tablet will also face increasing competition from lower-costing rivals like the $100 Ainol-branded Novo7. The smaller, 7-inch, multi-touch capacitive screened tablet was released in China late last year featuring front- and rear-facing cameras capable of video chatting, and a battery packed with 300 hours of standby time supporting gaming and movie viewing.

Android-maker Google is likely pleased to see lower-priced offerings which still tout full-featured capability to showcase the OS' flexibility in the tablet arena, not to mention feed the growing appetite for apps from its Marketplace.

The books on the tablet market are closed for 2011, but the opportunities for 2012 -- both in terms of features and price points -- are increasingly varied, and may provide the needed opening for one or more competitors to rise to the occasion and become a viable contender to Apple's pioneering tablet device, even possibly transforming the tablet market.