Android 3 Tablets – iPad Killers?

Acer chief executive Gianfranco Lanci seems to be confident that Android 3 powered tablets are the only answer to the iPad. The company even decided to delay the launch of its Android-based tablets until April 2011 just to make sure that when Acer’s puppies are out, all the proper optimizations are built in its tablets.

 

 

 

Acer’s CEO even admitted that Apple hit the “sweet spot” with the iPad, thanks to its screen size and its intuitive operating system – but he strongly believes that new Android 3 based tablets will be able to fight back: “If I look at Apple, they influence the market on one side, but there is always room for improvement on the other side. [...] Take iPad – when they came out it was without Flash and with certain limitations. With Android products we will fix that. Talking about screen resolution and even in terms of touch, view angles – there are a lot of things where you still have big room for differentiation or improvement compared to Apple.”

Acer’s CEO also acknowledged that Android 2 was not a good answer to the iPad, as even the newest edition, dubbed Gingerbread (aka 2.3), wasn’t meant to power any decent tablet: “Now you can have Gingerbread on a tablet, but we [read Acer] are not convinced it is the right solution.”

Meanwhile, Acer is also working on Chrome OS based tablets, planned to be released sometime next year. Between Chrome OS and Android, it looks like Google is still behind when it comes to powering tablet-like devices, a lag that must rejoice most engineers in Cupertino, CA.