Android Tablet On The Cheap: Acer Iconia A500 Is The XOOM “Light”

Home > News & Articles > Android Tablet On The Cheap: Acer Iconia A500 Is The XOOM “Light”

Android Tablet On The Cheap: Acer Iconia A500 Is The XOOM “Light”

April 9th, 2011 androidoholic Leave a comment Go to comments

Acer’s Iconia A500 inscription features the same expect hardware specifications as Motorola’s XOOM, but with half the spark storage and $150 cheaper.

Back in early March, we draft that Motorola emanate a new SKU for their XOOM inscription with a somewhat marked down underline set , that we tentatively called the “XOOM Light”.

If you do not recollect thepiece, here’s the gist of the argument:

If iSuppli’s BOM is to be believed to be inside of charming operation of real part costs, then Motorola can trim wherever between 50 and 60 dollars off their production cost on the XOOM by rupturing the spark storage in half to 16GB and going with reduction costly camera parts, putting it closer on standard with Apple’s iPad 2. This would enable the XOOM to sell for about $50-$80 reduction than the entry-level iPad 2, depending on how shut the firm wants to cut their margins.

The usually way XOOM is going to be a repeat strike for Motorola Mobility in the same way the Droid was for their handset business is to undercut the iPad 2 on price. With a descend cost and a identical underline set to the iPad 2, a considerable portion of consumers might be peaceful to disremember a few of the shortcomings on Android 3′s stream inscription app gap.

While this request seems to be descending on deaf ears at Motorola, assumingly this thought resonated with one of its competitors, the Taiwanese-based Personal Computer hulk Acer, Inc.

Today the firm along with duct associate Best Buy voiced pre-orders for its Android 3-based iPad competitor, the Iconia A500 , that has scarcely identical specifications to the Wi-Fi usually chronicle of the Motorola XOOM.

See: Motorola XOOM Specifications

See: Acer Iconia A500 Specifications

The usually poignant difference? 16GB of spark mental recall instead of 32GB that lines up with the entry-level Wi-Fi iPad really nicely. At $450.00 , the 10.1″ inscription device expenses $50 reduction than the entry-level iPad 2 , and is $140-$150 reduction than the XOOM.

It seems that Acer didn’t even need tosacrificethe camera capabilities to make up for part expenses on the BOM to be able to vie with the iPad 2. It moreover has identically-specced2MP front-facing and 5MP, LED spark rear-facing cameras as the XOOM.

In add-on to identical SoC and PoP, memory, RAM, GPU, screen, cameras and ports, the device is moreover the same density of the XOOM, at 12.9mm, rounded off half an inch.

Note to all Android and other would-be inscription manufacturers: The club for 10.1″ full size, 16GB gadgets that are not conduit sealed has right away been lowered to $450.00 . That means anything in the inscription marketplace that is not Apple needs to cost this sufficient or reduction , with identical specifications.

Oh and HP , concerning your WebOS 3 TouchPad , I’m moreover conversing to you .

Today we pre-ordered one of the Iconia A500 devices, steer unseen. If it’s wherever nearby as great a device as the XOOM as far as erect high quality is concerned, I’m peaceful to put up with a few of the stream shortcomings in Android 3 to be able to keep a assessment Honeycomb device in house.

I’m not advocating that many consumers look at this device in lieu of the higher focus ecosystem on the iPad 2, but this cost indicate was enough for me to take action to encounter my evident requirements. For the same reason, Android developers will probably burst at the chance to purchase one of these gadgets as well.

The subject right away waste of how Android 3 gadgets can obviously tell apart at the $450.00 cost point, and if it’s even probable to descend that cost club any further. we regard the cost club may be lowered, but there’s usually one firm who we believe can achieve this: Amazon.

As we referred to in my November 2010 square “Kindle’s Secret Sibling: Amazon’s Android Tablet” it is my belief that the online tradesman and bookseller has a decisive outline to let go such a device.

What the expect specs for this device are is left to the aptitude and may be pristine speculation, but of course if you remove the need for Google chartering of the Android OS and the Android Market along with Google’s apps, replacing them with Amazon monetizing equivalents, the cost of a similarly-specced inscription could simply be marked down other $50-$80.

An Amazon Android inscription using the Open Source, unlawful chronicle of Honeycomb, amalgamated with Amazon Appstore for Android , Kindle for Android , the Amazon MP3 service together with Amazon Video and Amazon Cloud Player creates for a near-complete inscription OS and focus stack, that would enable the firm to monetize their properties on the device and take the “Give away the razor but sell the blades” approach.

All of this is dependent, of course, on Google obviously releasing the source ethics to Honeycomb outward of their granted vendors list, a check that currently has the Open Source residents surely irate .

The usually thing that would obviously be omitted from such a fanciful device is a local Android letter customer to speak to GMail, Hotmail and other services inclusive corporate Exchange email, along with the apt monthly calendar sync services, mapping and integrated finding engine apps.

Presumably the missingpiecescould be coded in-house by Amazon, or purchased/licensed from a 3rd-party. we could of course see Amazon partnering with someone similar to Microsoft to supply Bing finding and mapping in lieu of Google, together with a full permit of Activesync and local Exchange client.

Whatever the outcome, it’s coherent that Acer has just brought prices for iPad 2 competitors down to sufficient more pragmatic and satisfactory levels. Whether it will dive any serve in the evident future waste to be seen.

Has Acer re-defined the pricing is to full-sized Android inscription space? Talk Back and Let Me Know.