Acer boosts tablet shipments for April

Acer is already optimistic enough about its Iconia Tab launches that it's increasing production, part suppliers said late Monday. Although it was conservative when it first made orders in March, Acer has supposedly bumped the order dramatically to between 500,000 and 800,000 tablets. About 400,000 to 600,000 of those would be the 10-inch A500 models where the rest would be seven-inch designs.

The Taiwan firm is hoping mostly to compete with non-Apple tablet makers like HP, Motorola, and RIM. It hoped to make carrier-friendly versions for both AT&T and Verizon that would eat into sales of the Xoom.

The company is also beginning to accept the state of netbooks and is ramping down orders, the suppliers explained. Tablets would help make up for the difference.

Acer hasn't confirmed the production switch but has undergone an almost immediate, public transformation since forcing out its old CEO Gianfranco Lanci. Where Lanci's lead had mostly seen the company deny any iPad effect even as its notebook PC sales kept dropping, the new structure has seen it focus on mobile. It already achieved a first for Android 3.0 by pricing the Iconia Tab A500 Wi-Fi below the iPad 2 where Motorola, Samsung, and others have either priced their tablets similarly or even higher.

By Electronista Staff

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