Acer's Tablet PC With(out) a Twist

Just got back from a quick trip to Athens--Greece, not Georgia-where I visited the nice folks at PCW's local edition there, PC World Greece and attended Acer's Global Press Conference.

Greece is a long way to go for a press conference, but in this case, it made sense. Acer is a venerable PC maker that's had a relatively low profile in the U.S. in recent years, though it's growing here and has gotten lots of attention for its Ferrari notebooks. Worldwide, though, the company is the #5 PC company and a particularly big player in Europe.

Acer showed a bunch of products, not all of which will be available in the U.S. One which will be is the TravelMate C200, a Tablet PC with a 12.1-inch screen that slides up into position to turn the system from a tablet into a standard clamshell notebook--rather than twisting around, as the screens on all other convertible Tablet PCs do. It's an interesting design that puts the screen at a nice angle and feels sturdy. It also reminds me of that of the Grid Convertible, an early-1990s tablet-style PC that was way, way ahead of its time.

Unlike other Tablet PCs, the C200's design means that its screen always faces out when it's closed, but a clever built-in cloth cover protects it. InfoSync World has some photos and specs. Pricing hasn't been set yet.

In the U.S., Acer is currently focused on notebooks and monitors. But it says it plans to start selling LCD TVs in this country, possibly before the end of this year. And at the press conference, it demoed a 37-inch LCD with built-in 802.11g wireless networking and an ethernet port; run Acer's software on your PC, and you can stream video (including high-definition stuff), music, and photos directly to the TV. Also in the works: An Acer TV with a built-in hard drive for self-contained PVR functionality.