Acer Iconia Tab A100 Goes Up for Pre-Order

The Acer Iconia Tab A100 is a 7-inch tablet featuring 8GB of storage and running Android Honeycomb 3.0. Other specifics include an nVidia Tegra 250 dual-core processor running at 1 GHz with a 1MB cache, 1GB of DDR2 SDRAM, and support for reading microSD cards. The device is available for pre-order over on ExcaliberPC.com and has an estimated arrival date of 15 August. However, it is not clear if this is the forecast date for when buyers would receive the device, or when Excaliber would have them available to ship.

ExcaliberPC has the A100 listed for $329. There are not a host of 7-inch Android Tablets on the market right now, and none of them have reviewed particularly well in aggregate. The $329 price tag of the A100 will undercut the latest 7-inch products it will compete with, mainly the Blackberry Playbook and the HTC Flyer. At its least expensive, the Blackberry Playbook can be found in its 16GB variant for $400 plus shipping. Best Buy sells it for $499.99, and sells the HTC Flyer for the same price. We reported earlier in the month that Best Buy claimed that it would bundle the Scribe Digital Pen with the tablet for the same price. However, as of now, the Best Buy website still reflects the pen as an additional $79.99 add-on, and does not list it in the included accessories in the HTC Flyer product description.

The A100 is listed with a 1 year warranty, which is standard for other products in this category. ExcaliberPC offers an extension of the standard warranty out to three years for $89. Additional retailers will reportedly gain access to the device at the same time, in mid-August. There are reports that the actual MSRP should be closer to $300, so it is unclear if a price premium is being charged on the pre-orders.

While specifications for the device currently list it as having Android 3.0 pre-loaded, there are hopes that it will be stepped up to 3.2 before it releases. Android 3.2 brings several enhancements specifically for devices with screens smaller than 10-inches. Other specs for the device include:

• 7 inch, 1024 X 600 capacitive multi-touch touch-screen
• 802.11b/g/n/ WiFi (2.4GHz only)
• Micro-HDMI
• Docking Port
• Front and Rear Facing Cameras
• 1530 mAh battery
• 0.9 lbs weight

Acer's former CEO, Gianfranco Lanci departed in May of this year, reportedly because the board felt he was not moving fast enough to meet the emerging challenge in ultra-mobility spurred by Apple's iPad. Acer has most recently been shuffling its strategic outlook for tablet sales and its approach to quality. The release of the Iconia Tab A100 is expected to figure prominently in that new strategy.

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