Acer Preps Centrino Tablet PC

Acer America will launch a Tablet PC based on Intel's Centrino technology this week.

The TravelMate C110 is a convertible device that resembles the San Jose, California, company's first Tablet PC product, the C100. It can function as a notebook, or the user can switch to Tablet PC mode by rotating the screen to cover the keyboard. The device uses an ultra-low-voltage 900-MHz Pentium M processor along with Intel's 855 chip set and Intel's Pro Wireless 802.11b chip.

The C110 comes with a 10.4-inch display and two USB 2.0 ports, and it weighs 3.2 pounds. Prices for the device will start at $1899, with availability through resellers in North America starting Thursday. Acer America is a subsidiary of Acer, based in Taipei, Taiwan.

Motion Computing plans to launch a slate Tablet PC next week that features the new Intel technology. Slate Tablet PCs do not come with a built-in keyboard, but they can be docked if the user wants to set up a workstation with a keyboard.

Motion sells its Tablet PCs through vendors such as Dell Computer and Gateway, as well as from its own Web site. The new M1300 will use the same 900-MHz Pentium M processor as Acer's C110, but Motion has not released pricing information for its device.

Practical Applications

The combination of low power consumption. high performance, and long battery life offered by the Centrino package is necessary for users to see Tablet PCs as practical devices, analysts have said. Matsushita Electric Industrial, more widely known as Panasonic, has already released a device uniting the 900-MHz Pentium M and Intel's wireless technology, and other vendors are expected to follow suit.

Most Tablet PC vendors opted for Intel's Ultra Low Voltage Pentium III-M processor when the products were launched in November, since that chip consumed less power than any other Intel processor available at the time.

Acer's TravelMate C100 tied Hewlett-Packard's Compaq Tablet PC TC1000 for the market share lead in fourth-quarter shipments. The devices debuted with the launch of Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet PC Edition in November.