Price sensitivity
Acer has unveiled a new 16 GB version of its ICONIA TAB A500 tablet, which comes with a hefty price-cut of £100 in comparison with the original 32GB version.
The Android 3.0 16 GB A500 is available now for £350, which compares to £450 for the 32 GB A500 and W500. The 32 GB Motorola Xoom currently goes for £480, while the 16 GB ASUS Transformer will still cost you £380 even if you forgo the keyboard. The 16 GB Apple iPad costs £399, as does the 16 GB BlackBerry Playbook.
The £100 deduction for 16 GB of storage is certainly very generous, as it costs Acer nowhere near that much to include, and is even more than the £80 Apple charges for the same amount of storage in the iPad. We have to wonder, however, whether £350 is low enough to seriously tempt people away from the iPad, with its more polished UI and more mature ecosystem.
Acer said in its press release that the A500 has been ‘hugely successful'. While Acer isn't providing the sales figures to substantiate that claim, it has assured us that sales of both the A500 and W500 have exceeded expectations, with the Windows/AMD-based W500 proving especially popular among business customers.
As a reminder, here's a picky and the spec sheet of the A500.
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Acer ICONIA TAB A500 Technical Specifications |
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CPU |
Tegra 250 Dual cortex A9, 1GHz (with Ultra Low Power GeForce® GPU) |
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Operation System |
Android Honeycomb |
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Memory |
RAM: LP DDR2 1GB eMMC: 16GB |
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Display |
10.1" WXGA LCM, 262K (1280*800) Aspect rate 16:10 / Brightness 350 nits / Color gamut 45% Contrast ratio 1500:1 / View angle 85/85/85/85 |
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Network |
Optional 3G Module "Huawei EM770W" UMTS /WCDMA 1, 2, 5, 8 2100/1900/850/900 HSPA : HSDPA up to 7.2 Mbps**/ HSUPA up to 5.76Mbps GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850MHz / 900MHz / 1800Mhz / 1900Mhz ** Upon request for HSDPA up to 21Mbps with Ericsson F5521gw |
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Camera |
Main camera: 5M Pixel Camera with Auto focus, Flash Light Second camera : 2M Pixel Camera |
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Connectivity |
Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR , 3.0 upgradable Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB
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Input |
Capacitive Multi-Touch Screen (Real 4 touch , up to 10) Function keys : Volume Up, Volume Down, Screen Lock, Power Sensors : G-Sensor / Proximity Sensor / E-Compass / Light Sensor /Gyro-meter mini SIM ( Support MM-SIM) for 3G sku only |
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Out put |
HDMI D-type ( support Dual Display) |
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Audio |
Dual analog Microphone (Beam-forming, Noise /echo cancellation ) Dual Speaker: above 1W/pcs, chamber size :above 1 c.c 3.5mm Audio Jack 4ring ( with Mic) / Dolby mobile |
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Dimension |
260 (L) x 177 (W) x 13.3 (H) mm |
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Weight |
WiFi SKU <700g / 3G SKU <730g |
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Expansion Slot |
MicroSD memory card up to 64G (SDHC 2.0 compatible) |
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Battery |
Rechargeable Lithium-ion polymer battery, 24.1W (3260mAh cell , 2S1P) Stand-by: Web surfing: WiFi SKU up to 10 hours , 3G SKU up to 9 hours Youtube playback 720p video for 8hours via WiFi Video Playback Time: Charging time: 1 hour to reach 50% (when in sleep mode) |
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AC Adapter |
Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz DC output: 12V and 1.5 A, 18W |
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Accessory (In Box) |
USB Cable, Charger + Plug, Dustproof bag, QSG |
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Accessory (Optional) |
AC Power Supply, Dock with IR remote control, Wireless RF Keyboard, HDMI Cable, Protective Case, Iconia Tab Sleeve, Bump Case |
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Applications |
Game: Online 3D games; console games and casual games eReading: LumiRead; Zinio Reader;m nook (varies by territory) Multimedia: Clear.Fi ; Youtube; MusicA; nemoPlayer; Media server; Aupeo; Spinlets; Netfix Social Networking: Facebook; urFooz; Twitter; SocialJogger; Skype |
