Acer working on a cheaper Windows 8 tablet

A lot of talk surrounding Acer and its upcoming line-up of tablets is circulated around the $99 tablet – the Acer Iconia B1. However, it appears that it is not just the Android platform, but the company is planning to launch a cheaper Windows-based tablet as well, sources have informed The Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, “Another person with direct knowledge of Acer’s tablet products said the company is also planning to launch a low-priced version of its Intel-based Windows 8 tablets early next year, as its current ones are “too pricey.”

Acer is working on a cheaper Windows 8 tablet

The current Acer Iconia W510 costs $549 onwards while the Acer Iconia W700 has a starting price of $800. It appears that if Acer launches a cheaper Windows 8 tablet, it may definitely gain a large proportion of the Windows RT market due to the low price tag.

As of now, there are no more details regarding this cheaper Windows tablet from Acer.

For those that do not know, it was speculated that the Acer Iconia B1 would be priced at $99, but those were mere speculations and this is the first time a major publication – The Wall Street Journal – has revealed the pricing details about the upcoming tablet from Acer.

As of now, there is no confirmation of the final pricing, according to the report and pricing of this tablet will vary from country to country. The tablet is designed for developing markets and may not be available for purchase the world over.

The sources have informed the publication stating, “In the past few months, we’ve made project roadmap changes in response to big changes in the tablet market. The launch of the Nexus 10 (made by Google Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. with a US$399 starting price) has changed the outlook for what makes competitive pricing.”

This is not the first time details about the Acer Iconia B1 have surfaced. A leak on GLBenchmark had already revealed some of the specifications of a tablet known as Acer Iconia B1-A71. This tablet was tipped to compete directly with the rumoured budget offering from Asus, which is codenamed ME172V and tipped to be a Google Nexus tablet.

From the GLBenchmark, a few details of the device have been revealed such as it will run on Android 4.1.2 and will feature a screen size of 1024 x 552 pixels which would translate it to an actual display size of 1024 x 600 pixels with a pixel density of 169 ppi. The processor noted here is 1.2GHz dual-core and the GPU is PowerVR SGX 531.

According to a post on Benchmark.rs, this 7-inch offering from Acer will also come equipped with 512MB of RAM, 8GB of storage, a microSD card slot for storage expansion, GPS and Bluetooth 4.0. The thread also features some press shots of the tablet giving us a preview of what it will look like once it gets officially unveiled.

The Acer Iconia B1-A71 had recently been cleared by the Federal Communications Commission and this tablet is believed to make its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show slated to take place in January 2013.

It appears that Acer will launch two budget-friendly tablets on two major operating systems and though the pricing of these tablets may cut Acer’s profit margins, the sales figure should be good in developing markets.