Acer Shows Off 7-inch Kindle-like Tablet

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At a recent press event in the United Arab Emirates, Acer’s CEO Gianfranco Lanci showed off a previously unseen seven-inch Android tablet. We had heard from previous reports that Acer was working on an Android tablet, but this is the first time it had been seen by the outside world. Those who saw it described it as Kindle-like.

Magnus Nystedt, writing for Shufflegazine was one of the lucky few to see the Acer tablet. He explains that Acer first showed off their LumiRead eReader, which didn’t interest him much, but then later, CEO Lanci unexpected pulled out this seven-inch Kindle-like Android tablet.

Although it shares a similar form-factor to the Kindle, the Acer tablet isn’t just an eReader. It has a seven-inch LCD (color) screen. Mr. Lanci didn’t share any further details with the press assembled, although he said it was coming in Q4 of this year. Lanci told the press there that they weren’t decided between selling it at retail or selling it through “operators”. Since he’s talking about cell carriers, it’s seems highly likely this thing has a 3G radio and could be sold via a telcom carrier with a data plan.

So, this is Acer’s iPad killer. They’ve released quite a few convertible tablet-notebooks running full desktop Windows, but it’s obvious that outside of hospitals, nobody wants those. Expect this Android Acer tablet to have a customized OS like the iPad.

Between the Dell Streak, WeTab and now this Acer tablet, looks like a lot of great Android alternatives to the iPad are coming this year.