Acer, HTC, Avaya Joining Tablet Race

Avaya Desktop Video Device

Another day, another tablet announcement. Computer maker Acer is reportedly planning to roll out a device that would fall between a smartphone and a tablet and would be similar to the Dell Streak, as well as two larger Android-powered tablets in the first quarter of 2011.

HTC and Google are also reportedly collaborating to launch a tablet early next year that will run Google Android 3.0, DigiTimes is reporting. And Avaya Wednesday also announced plans for a 6-inch Android touchscreen tablet called Flare, which would rival Cisco’s Cius communications tablet, announced in June.

DigiTimes is reporting that the three Acer models would have 5-inch, 7-inch, and 10-inch panels. The 5-inch model is expected to fall between the smartphone and tablet markets. Acer is in talks with both Compal Electronics and Quanta Computer to develop the tablet, DigiTimes said.

In terms of a processor, the computer maker is said to be still evaluating Qalcomm's Snapdragon and Nvidia's Tegra 2 and has not made a decision which one to use for its Android tablet PC. The 5-inch tablet would let consumers have functionality for both handset and PC features.

On the heels of the wildly successful Apple iPad, Acer, HTC, and Avaya are joining the ranks of the many other companies that have plans to launch tablets in 2011, including Research in Motion (RIM), Nokia, Motorola, Samsung Electronics, Hewlett-Packard, and LG Electronics. Many of those are expected to be 7-inch devices running Android, although HP said over the summer its tablet will run Windows 7 and be targeted at enterprises. A second, consumer-based HP tablet computer would run Palm's WebOS.