Taiwan's Asus and Acer Target Win8 Tablet Market

Taipei, Oct.15, 2012 (CENS)--As ASUSTeK Computer Inc. announced its Vivo TF600, the firm's first Windows RT tablet, has moved to cooperate with AT&T Inc. in a 4G partnership, another renowned PC maker Acer Inc. in Taiwan also revealed the price of the Win8 Iconia W700 will start at US$799.

A representative of ASUS said its TF600 will be distributed via AT&T, the biggest U.S. telecom, to become one the first partners of AT&T to offer 4G LTE (long term evolution) solutions, also emphasizing that, following cooperation with Vodafone Group or the largest telecom in Europe, the partnership with AT&T shows ASUS's innovative products will continue to make waves globally.

Acer's website in the U.S. revealed the price of its first Win8 tablet PC “W700”, equipped with Intel Core i3 or i5 processor, 11.6-inch IPS display panel, featuring with a multifunctional docking base for upright and horizontal movements, to range US$799~US$1,049 depending on processors and memory capacity. The starting price of US$799 is similar to other tablet PCs recently released by Lenovo and ASUS, but higher than US$499 of Apple Inc.'s iPad.

An institutional investor says, with the addition of licensing fee for operating system, prices of Win8 tablet PCs are generally higher, focusing on business users who demand security and Microsoft Office software. Besides, Microsoft Inc. also launched its own branded tablet “Surface”, taking on directly PC manufacturers; so the coming release of Win8 is not likely to boost sales of traditional PC makers in the short-term.