The previously unknown CloudMobile smartphone has received the 2012 iF design award, which recognizes an outstanding achievement in design, according to Pocket-lint. The device is the latest flagship handset to come from Taiwanese manufacturer Acer, and it is expected to be unveiled at this month’s Mobile World Congress trade show. The CloudMobile is rumored to feature a 4.3-inch high-definition display, Dolby sound and Android 4.0, and it is less than 10 millimeters thick. According to Acer, the handset is the first smartphone to offer AcerCloud technology, which “enhances mobile productivity by providing seamless document management.” The CloudMobile smartphone is currently slated to launch in the third quarter of 2012.

Read

Acer has filed a lawsuit against its former chief executive officer Gianfranco Lanci for allegedly violating a non-compete agreement. Lanci left Acer last March after the company hit a rough patch and was recently named head of Lenovo’s operations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. “We believe Mr. Lanci has clearly breached the terms of the non-compete agreement he entered into willingly . . . we believe we have a very robust case,” Acer said in a statement given to the Financial Times. The Financial Times notes that Acer has fallen from the second to the fourth largest computer maker in the world while Lenovo has seen recent success and has risen to the No.2 spot.

Read

Apple pulled ahead of HP in the fourth quarter to become the largest player in the client PC market, a new report suggested Monday. The Cupertino-based company shipped more than 15 million iPads and 5 million Mac computers last quarter, and those figures represented 17% of all PCs shipped around the world during the fourth quarter. The report, which comes from market research firm Canalys, said PC shipments grew 16% annually to reach 120 million during the quarter, and the firm’s categorization of “PC” includes desktops, notebooks, netbooks and tablets in its figures. Tablets drove PC growth, however, and Canalys said the market would have declined by 0.4% without taking tablets into consideration. Read on for more.

Overall, Acer, Dell and HP lost market share while Apple and Lenovo increased their respective shares. “Currently, HP is pursuing a Windows strategy for its pad portfolio, producing enterprise-focused products, such as the recently launched Slate 2, until the launch of Windows 8,” said Canalys analyst Tim Coulling. “However, questions remain over Microsoft’s entry into the consumer pad space. While early demonstrations of the Window 8 operating system seem promising, Microsoft must focus its efforts on creating an intuitive user experience that is far less resource intensive.”

Another Canalys analyst, Michael Kauh, said that he expects to see “limited adoption” of new thinner and lighter Intel-powered ultrabooks during the first half of this year but that adoption should increase in the second half as prices fall. ”In the short term though, vendors will experience more pressure in the netbook and notebook segments, especially with Apple’s annual iPad refresh approaching,” Kauh said. Canalys’s full press release follows below.

Apple storms past HP to lead global PC market

120 million PCs shipped globally in Q4 2011, up 16% year-on-year

Shanhai, Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading – Monday, 30 January 2012

Canalys today announced that Apple, after reporting stellar results, became the leading worldwide client PC vendor in Q4 2011. Apple shipped over 15 million iPads and five million Macs, representing 17% of the total 120 million client PCs shipped globally in Q4. Overall, the total client PC market, including desktops, netbooks, notebooks, and pads grew 16% year-on-year. Excluding pads, the client PC market declined 0.4%. The floods in Thailand, that impacted hard drive assembly plants, caused mild disruption to shipments during the quarter, but the side effects are likely to be felt in the first half of 2012.

Among the other top five PC vendors, only Lenovo managed to increase its market share, by a relatively modest two points, compared to Apple’s six-point gain over the same quarter a year ago. Acer, Dell and HP – the hardest hit – all lost market share.  Now the second largest client PC vendor worldwide, HP will struggle to compete with Applefollowing the end of its Touchpad.

“Currently, HP is pursuing a Windows strategy for its pad portfolio, producing enterprise-focused products, such as the recently launched Slate 2, until the launch of Windows 8,” said Canalys Analyst Tim Coulling. “However, questions remain over Microsoft’s entry into the consumer pad space. While early demonstrations of the Window 8 operating system seem promising, Microsoft must focus its efforts on creating an intuitive user experience that is far less resource intensive.”

Lenovo continued to close the gap on HP, thanks to successful investment outside of core markets. The acquisition of Medion in Germany helped Lenovo double its shipments in Western Europe during the second half of 2011. The vendor’s decision to use Android for enterprise and consumer pads gives it a better opportunity than HP to continue gaining market share.

Dell placed fourth among the top five PC vendors, followed by Acer. Acer’s shipments continued to decline, as a result of the pad’s impact on the netbook market. It did, however, make headlines at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in January, when it revealed its S5 Ultrabook. Unsurprisingly, Acer and other vendors have been quick to announce their support for the new Ultrabook form factor, with the view of driving innovation and renewed customer interest in notebooks.

“We expect Ultrabook volumes to see limited adoption through the first half of 2012, before finally gaining momentum later in the year as price points decline and Intel launches a new line of processors and embarks on an aggressive marketing campaign,” said Canalys Research Analyst Michael Kauh. “In the short term though, vendors will experience more pressure in the netbook and notebook segments, especially with Apple’s annual iPad refresh approaching.”

Pads accounted for 22% of total PC shipments during Q4 2011. In addition to Apple’s strong performance, the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet by Barnes and Noble boosted volumes in the U.S. market, allowing both vendors to claim spots among the top five worldwide pad makers, in second and fifth place respectively.

All regions grew year-on-year with the inclusion of pads. Excluding pads, however, shipments in Europe, Middle East and Africa and North America declined, due to weaker consumer demand in Western Europe and the United States, despite the traditional Q4 sales periods. Vendors and channel partners took a cautious approach to inventory levels in Q4, as many had expected a slow quarter. Notebook volumes grew slightly, at approximately 1% in these regions, but continued their impressive rise in Asia Pacific and Latin America, as more consumers embraced mobile computing.

“The consumerization of IT continues to be a significant disruptive force in the PC industry, but many of the leading vendors have failed to capitalize on the trend to date,” said Coulling. “This year will be a pivotal year for those vendors that were slow to launch pads. It is not just the product that they need to get right, business models are equally important – driving revenues from content delivery can help vendors reach lower price points in a market that is incredibly price sensitive.”

Acer, Asus and Lenovo will reportedly begin selling ultrabooks equipped with Intel’s fast and versatile Thunderbolt I/O port, which combines DisplayPort and PCI Express, during the second quarter of 2012. DigiTimes said mostly high-end computers will adopt Thunderbolt this year since it now costs more than $20 to add Thunderbolt connectivity to a computer. Apple was one of the first companies to adopt Thunderbolt and it currently equips a number of its computers and displays with the technology. A recent patent filing also suggested Apple may begin using Thunderbolt in iOS devices, too.

Read

Acer chairman JT Wang on Thursday reaffirmed the company’s dedication to the new “ultrabook” market, further distancing his company from the low-margin netbooks that have dominated its PC lineup in the past. Following the success of Acer’s first-generation ultrabook — the Aspire S3 reportedly shipped between 250,000 and 300,000 units during its first quarter of availability — Acer plans to launch new ultrabook models in both the second and third quarters this year. According to DigiTimes, Wang estimates that Windows and Intel-powered ultrabooks will account for between 25% and 35% of the company’s PC sales in 2012. Wang expects notebook shipment volume to slide between 10% and 15% sequentially in the first quarter, however he expects full-year shipments to grow 10% compared to 2011. While sales in the U.S. and Europe are likely to remain relatively slow according to Acer, the company projects strong sales in Brazil, the Philippines, Thailand and other Southeast Asia markets.

Read

Acer recently announced the company’s intent to enter into the cloud game with the introduction of AcerCloud. The service will be available for Android devices and bundled with Acer brand computers starting in the second quarter of 2012 with worldwide availability in the fourth quarter. With AcerCloud’s PicStream, users can take a picture with their smartphone and have it automatically backed up to their computer to share with other connected devices. Additionally, AcerCloud Docs, a cloud-based documents service, allows users to update documents and save them to the cloud to stream them to other devices. Both of these services permanently back up the respective contents on a user’s PC and allow files to be temporarily accessed for 30 days from your personal own cloud account. With Acer’s clear.fu Media application you’re also able to access your multimedia at anytime, again, from your own cloud account. AcerCloud shares numerous similarities with Apple’s iCloud, which will be the service’s main competition. Read on for Acer’s full press release.

AcerCloud Connects All Personal Devices Securely for Anytime, Anywhere Access to Digital Media and Data

Acer today previewed its upcoming AcerCloud, which securely connects all personal smart devices for anytime, anywhere access. Featuring Acer Always Connect technology, users can retrieve multimedia and data files anytime, even when their main PC is in sleep (standby/hibernation) mode. Users can enjoy these advantages knowing that their information is stored and transferred securely via strong encryption and authentication. Bringing users tremendous functionality and value, Acer will include the AcerCloud, without additional cost, on all new Acer consumer PCs.

Acer reduces the complexities of today’s fast-paced lifestyles by developing solutions that enable devices to communicate, simplifying the process of content sharing. With the ever-growing number of smart digital devices, users need to share and back up their multimedia and data files in a simple, smart way.

Create, acquire and consume on different devices
AcerCloud makes it easy to take photos on a smartphone while on the go, and then view them on a main PC at home or in the office, without the delay and complication of manually transferring files. It also allows users to purchase a movie from an all-in-one PC, and then watch it on a tablet or smartphone on a train or airplane. As long as the main PC is in sleep (standby/hibernation) mode, Acer Always Connect technology can wake it up through Wi-Fi® so media can be retrieved via a mobile device. AcerCloud, meanwhile, intelligently uses local and cloud storage together so all data is always available. Other features of AcerCloud include:

PicStream
Through PicStream, users can take holiday snapshots on their smartphone, back them up on the main PC, and share them efficiently with other smart devices. Users can stream photos via clear.fi in the Cloud to PCs and other devices; photos are backed up permanently on their PC, and temporarily accessible for 30 days in their personal cloud and on other devices.

AcerCloud Docs
Professionals can update sales documents on a PC and save them, and the documents will be put into the personal cloud and streamed to other devices. They can then go to their meeting with their notebook or tablet PC and have immediate access to all the updated files. The files will be temporarily accessible for 30 days in the personal cloud and on the devices, or they can choose to download the files on to other devices for long-term storage.

clear.fi Media
With Acer’s unique clear.fi Media application, users can also access all their multimedia at any time. They can use clear.fi to connect to the personal cloud and stream live, or download and enjoy content offline for convenient on-the-go entertainment.

Acer Inc. President Jim Wong stated, “AcerCloud not only provides the simplicity and efficiency when accessing and sharing data, but it’s also free with a new Acer PC and gives our users peace-of-mind, knowing that their data is safely transferred in a personal cloud space.”

AcerCloud will be bundled on all Acer consumer PCs starting Q2 2012. It will support all Android devices, while future support is planned for Windows-based devices. The service will be available in America, Europe, Asia and China.

Acer has officially announced the newest addition to the company’s Iconia Tab lineup, the A200. The 10.1-inch device runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb with an Ice Cream Sandwich update slated for mid-February. The A200 features NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor with a 1280 x 800-pixel display and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Additionally, the device features a microSD slot, 1GB RAM, a full sized USB 2.0 port and eight hours of battery life. Perhaps the most attractive feature is the price tag — the 8GB model will be available for $329 and the 16GB model for $349. An attractive price for a tablet that will have Ice Cream Sandwich next month is definitely appealing, so be sure to checkout our Consumer Electronics Show coverage, where this tablet is set to debut. Acer’s full press release can be found after the break.

Acer Expands Popular Tablet Lineup with Iconia Tab A200, A Full-Featured HD Tablet at an Attractive $329 Price

SAN JOSE, Calif., January 5, 2012 – Acer America today announced availability of the Iconia™ Tab A200, the latest addition to Acer’s line of full-featured Android tablets. The new 10.1-inch Iconia Tab A200 is a portable activity hub for gaming, e-books, movies, music, photography, social networking and more. Offered at the attractive price of $329.99, the Iconia Tab A200 will be available to U.S. customers on January 15.

The new Acer Iconia Tab A200 tablet enables customers to interact with and enjoy technology in ways that are both truly natural and exciting. Loaded with the latest edition of Android™ Honeycomb™ 3.2 operating system, the Iconia Tab A200 is user-friendly and extremely interactive with resizable app widgets and fun features the whole family can enjoy. The Iconia Tab A200 also comes with a free upgrade to Android 4.0 (known as Ice Cream Sandwich), which will be available in mid-February.

“The Acer Iconia Tab family of tablets is an excellent example of Acer’s ability to deliver high-performance, full-function mobile devices at unbeatable values,” said Eric Ackerson, senior product marketing manager for Acer America. “Acer brings the Iconia Tab A200 to consumers at an affordable price, without making sacrifices on key tablet features such as expansion, connectivity to other devices, HD displays and cameras.”

High-Quality Performance for Hours of Fun
Sleek and easy to hold, the Iconia Tab A200 weighs 1.5 pounds. The tablet is wrapped in a slim, titanium gray-colored casing, with an eye-catching patterned back side, which is soft to the touch. On the front, the A200 showcases a beautiful HD multi-touch display featuring crystal-clear 1280 x 800 resolution for an outstanding viewing experience.

Made especially for multimedia enjoyment, the Iconia Tab A200 packs hardware and apps for loads of fun. The tablet provides an enhanced level of performance with its NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 dual-core mobile processor and integrated GeForce™ GPU that allows users to enjoy HD gaming, 1080p video, Flash-based applications, faster browsing and multitasking.

Gamers of all ages will enjoy the preloaded Tegra Zone Android app, which allows users to search and download the best Android games that are optimized for NVIDIA Tegra powered tablets. The Iconia Tab A200′s fast gaming experience is also supported by a six-axis motion sensing gyroscope, essential for high-precision gaming so actions and animations are more correctly performed.

Users can enjoy up to eight hours of cable-free battery life , providing endless hours to surf the web, watch movies, play games and read e-books, far from the nearest electrical outlet. The Iconia Tab A200 comes pre-loaded with apps like Kindle for countless reading selections and Netflix for instant delivery of movie and entertainment titles. One tap on the Android Market allows users access to thousands of downloadable apps.

Packed with Practical and Fun Features
Offering superior expansion and connectivity, the Iconia Tab A200 has a full-size USB 2.0 port for hooking up other devices and a MicroSD slot and micro-USB port for passing data. A two megapixel front-facing web camera enables face-to-face chats or quick snaps for still photos. For an enhanced social networking experience, the Iconia Tab A200 includes Acer SocialJogger, which consolidates Facebook, Twitter and more into one spot.

The Iconia Tab A200 improves multitasking with the unique interactive Acer Ring interface, allowing users to customize their tablet experience by putting their most commonly used applications into one easy spot. Users can launch the ring by tapping the double circle located in the system bar, opening a series of key apps, settings, bookmarks or contextual menu options. The tablet also features Screenshot, which quickly captures web images, articles, Google Maps and even smiling faces from video calls. Screenshot can be used in any app for maximum convenience.

Acer clear.fi is installed on the Acer Iconia Tab A200 to connect with any other DLNA-compliant device to quickly and easily share digital medai. Clear.fi automatically connects all Acer devices on a network (smartphones, notebooks, desktops, HD media plays and storage devices) and gathers and organizes media files by type (video, music, photos, pre-recorded TV).

Affordable Pricing Starting at only $329.99
The Acer Iconia Tab A200 will be available in the U.S. on January 15 at national retail stores. The Acer Iconia Tab A200-10g16u with 16GB of memory has a manufactuerer’s suggested retail price of $349.99, while the Acer Iconia Tab A200-10g08u with 8GB of memory has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $329.99.

Earlier this month, Acer announced its Iconia Tab A200 tablet, a 10.1-inch device running Ice Cream Sandwich and NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor clocked at 1GHz. The slate is supposed to land sometime in January and should make its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show. It is also suggested that Acer will be releasing a robust Tegra 3-powered device dubbed the Iconia Tab A700, as reported by NoMobile. The Russian site says the tablet features a 10.1-inch display with a 1920 x 1200 resolution. Additionally, the device sports a dedicated rotation lock switch, a micro-HDMI port, and both a SIM and micro-USB slot. On the back of the tablet is a textured design with a five megapixel camera and built-in flash. The A700 weighs 650 grams (1.43 pounds) and boasts 10 hours of battery life according to the report. Much like its less powerful brother, the A700 will debut at CES in January, however it reportedly won’t arrive in stores until March.

[Via Engadget]

Read

Acer will continue to launch new tablets in 2012 despite slow sales of the company’s current tablet models. Commenting on rumors that Acer might slow its tablet efforts in 2012 or even exit the emerging market completely, company founder Stan Shih stated that Acer would not be giving up on tablets just yet. He added that the company will continue to build smartphones as well, and that there are currently no plans to make personnel cuts in its tablet or smartphone divisions as had been previously rumored. Shih conceded that sales of Acer tablets have been poor thus far, DigiTimes reported, but the Taiwan-based computer vendor seemingly sees too much potential in the tablet market to give up. The founder also noted that Acer started slow in the notebook computer market before becoming one of the world’s top PC vendors.

Read

Following the early successes of its of 11-inch and 13-inch ultrabooks, Acer has reportedly decided to build a brand new 15-inch ultrabook that may dramatically undercut the price of Apple’s rumored 15-inch MacBook Air. DigiTimes said Wednesday that Acer has already contracted Pegratron to build the new computer, and that the device could be priced as low as $699 — $300 cheaper than the entry-level 11-inch MacBook Air. The latest rumors suggest that Apple could be prepared to deliver its 15-inch MacBook Air to the market as soon as the first quarter next year and that the device is already in the early stages of production. It is unclear when Acer’s new ultrabook will launch.

Read

Acer will cut its product line by 66% in 2012 and focus on simplifying its portfolio, company chairman JT Wang recently said according to reports. Wang expects the narrowed focus to be fine-tuned over the next two to three years, DigiTimes reports, but the sharper vision will have an immediate impact on sales — Acer thinks revenue will climb 10% in 2012 as Acer attacks the ultrabook market while shifting away from low-margin netbooks. The Acer boss also sees another upside to the advent of ultrabooks: the rise of slim Windows and Intel-powered notebook computers will weaken Apple’s growth over the next two years. As ultrabook prices begin to fall to the $699-range in 2012, their rapid adoption will slow sales of more expensive Mac laptops. Wang did note that fourth-quarter shipments were hurt by hard drive shortages due to the flooding in Thailand, but he says recovery was quicker than expected and business will rebound in the first quarter.

Read [narrowed Acer focus] Read [ultrabooks slow Apple growth]

Are PC makers starting to give up on tablets? Manufacturers Asus and Acer are shifting focus to Intel-powered ultrabooks instead of tablets to improve gross margins, DigiTimes said on Tuesday. The site’s report suggests that the notebook market may soon begin to rebound after declining in 2011. Both firms are seemingly drawn to the wider margins achieved on sales of notebook computers, and are also gravitating away from developing low-cost netbooks. Asus and Acer aren’t alone; other reports have suggested that Dell and HP may also abandon the tablet market next year despite rumors both would launch Windows 8 tablets during the third quarter. In addition, Asus and Acer are eyeing opportunities in emerging markets such as China, Indonesia and India as opposed to the United States and Europe, where the firms typically spend the most effort trying to sell devices. Asus has previously denied reports that it might abandon Android tablets.

Read

Last year more than 100 tablets were unveiled during the Consumer Electronics Show and this year it appears the focus could shift to Intel-powered ultrabooks. Demand for ultrabooks — devices defined as powerful thin and light notebooks with long-lasting battery life — is expected to begin to heat up following the holidays and January’s Consumer Electronics Show. More than 50 new ultrabook models will be displayed during CES and the category is expected to be one of the hottest consumer electronic segments on the show floor, Taiwan Economic News said Tuesday, citing insights from a show organizer. Intel, which invested $300 million in the utltrabook platform, also said that there will be more than 60 different ultrabook models available during 2012, and the chip maker’s upcoming Ivy Bridge processors will power many of them. Initial reports suggested that ultrabooks are off to a slow start, with just 50,000 units shipped so far from Acer, ASUS, Lenovo and Toshiba combined. Additionally, weak sales of the first models from Asus and Acer forced both firms to scale back production by as much as 40%, another report suggested.

Read

A number of recent entrants in the tablet space may make quick exits as their tablet offerings go largely unnoticed in a market seen to be dominated by the likes of Apple, Amazon and Barnes & Noble moving forward. A new report from DigiTimes on Thursday cites unnamed sources from within component suppliers in stating PC vendors such as HP, Acer, Asustek and Dell may abandon the tablet market next year. These companies have gained very little traction in the tablet space according to the report, as they lack competitive advantages. Read on for more.

Amazon, Barnes & Noble and possibly even Apple will continue to bring cheaper and more compelling tablets to market, making it increasingly difficult for companies like HP and Dell to compete. The former two companies are also seen as profiting mainly from their content platforms rather than hardware sales, so they are willing to sell devices at rock bottom prices that traditional PC vendors will be unable to match.

A number of venders are expected to turn to Microsoft’s Windows 8 platform once it becomes available in the second half of 2012, in an effort to offer a fresh take on media tablets. Of course, they might also try introducing unique and compelling features that draw attention and add utility unavailable on competitive offerings.

DigiTimes’ report notes that there are already indications that interest in the tablet market among consumers may be waning, and even Apple’s iPad 2 has seen sales stall in recent months. An earlier report noted that Google’s new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich platform is still not strong enough to compete in the tablet market, which could mean interest in Android tablets will continue to sputter in 2012 as it did this year.

Weak sales of the Acer S3 and Asus Zenbook series Ultrabooks have forced both Acer and Asus to scale back orders by 40%, DigiTimes reported on Thursday. The two companies are said to have slashed orders from between 250,000 and 300,000 units to between 150,000 and 180,000 units. The high-end Ultrabooks, which are priced around $1,000, are not faring well in a PC market that has seen decreased global demand. Sources said to be familiar with Acer’s shipment plans said the company is still confident in Ultrabooks as a whole, and that shipments were on a par with its original expectations. Reportedly, notebook manufacturers are waiting for Microsoft’s new Windows 8 operating system to ship in October, when demand is expected to increase. Intel introduced Ultrabooks in May, and has invested $300 million in the powerful thin and light products that it expects will compete directly with Apple’s MacBook Air. Intel hopes the new products will gain 40% of the global notebook market by the end of 2012. 

Read