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Acer to release $99 tablet?

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Are Acer planning on releasing a budget tablet priced at the $99 mark? What kind of specifications could such a device offer?

The FCC has recently cleared an Acer device with the name Iconia B1 which is rumored to be the Taiwanese firm's entry into the budget tablet market. Currently the Google Nexus 7 tablet is the leader of the pack in this end of the tablet market but it seems clear to manufacturers that there is a customer base for $99 tablets, especially with price-conscious consumers balking at the cost of some of the more desirable high-end tablets.

Various details regarding the device's specifications have been revealed, for starters a Mediatek SoC with a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor and a PowerVR SGX 531 GPU. Naturally, because the device is obviously aimed at the budget market certain cuts have had to be made with the hardware to bring costs down, so there is only 512 MB RAM available and just 8 GB storage space. The display is expected to offer a resolution of 1024x600 (in comparison, the Nexus 7 has a 1280x800 IPS LCD screen).

Acer has chosen Google's Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean OS to help attract potential customers familiar with the ubiquitous software. The device also features a microSD card slot, a SIM card slot and Bluetooth 4.0. Although the $99 price tag is currently speculative, the tablet is expected to be inexpensive with further release date and cost details likely to be revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2013.

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Daniel R Deakin, 2012-12-20 (Update: 2012-12-21)