After demonstrating the one of the region’s first Tablet PCs-the TravelMate C100-last year, Acer is throwing its full weight behind its mobility strategy in 2003. The Taiwanese hardware vendor is promoting an extended range of notebooks and Tablet PCs.”The mobility segment is the fastest growing trend in the Middle East market,” comments Krishna Murthy, general manager, Acer Computer Middle East. “We’re going to be focus on mobile computing with our Tablet PC products and Centrino-based machines,” he adds.Two key products for Acer in its bid to dominate the mobile segment, will be the TravelMate C110 Tablet PC and the 800 notebook. Both devices are based on Intel’s Centrino platform. “Acer expects the TravelMate C110 – which includes Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and Intel’s Centrino – to be popular with visitors to both the exhibition and Gitex Computer Shopper,” predicts Murthy. “Acer will be displaying everything from its latest tablet PC, to its entire range of TravelMate and Aspire Notebooks, as well as its latest desktop PCs and servers,” he adds.Since making their debut at last year’s show, demand for Tablet PCs has been steadily ramping up. The introduction of Intel’s Centrino platform in March of this year is likely to drive further growth in the mobile segment, predicts Murthy.”The market understands the concept behind the Tablet PC, and we’re seeing sales increase,” he adds.The lack of Arabic language support in the Tablet PC operating system hasn’t held back uptake of the new form factor machines. According to Murthy, users can still write in Arabic and save files, even through there isn’t the full range of functions that would normally be expected in a localised word processing package.Alongside Acer’s range of mobile hardware on display in hall 3, the vendor is promoting its range of Veriton desktops for the corporate and consumer segment.
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