Yesterday afternoon I read a Reuters article by Liana B. Baker, in which I found out about the three new tablets the company has to offer. According to Baker’s article, Acer’s CEO Gianfranco Lanci showed off 4.8-inch, 7-inch and 10.1-inch tablet devices, all three of which are going to run Android 3.0, though Acer will also release a 10.1-inch tablet that runs a version of Microsoft Windows. The three will hit the streets in April. WiFi-only models will come out first, followed by 3G versions of the tablets probably within a month. No pricing has been announced yet.

Jacqui Cheng also reported the announcement at Ars Technica, adding that the new Acer tablets will run dual-core Tegra processors. The Android OS will have an Acer-specific interface. The company’s 5-inch screen is designed to function both as a small tablet and a large smartphone. It’ll have a resolution of 1,024 by 480 pixels. The next size up features a 1,280 by 800-pixel resolution.

In other tablet news, Dell’s new Inspiron Duo 10-inch tablet/netbook hybrid is now available, according to PC World’s Leslie Horn. The device is pretty neat, take a look at the demo. Be sure to stay tuned at about 2:55 in the video.

The device reminds me of the classic Windows-based tablet of years past, which function as full-size notebooks or, with the screen flipped around and the lid closed, a large tablet. Dell’s chosen instead to have the screen flip within its case. I like the look of it. Horn’s article said the device operates on a dual-core 1.5-GHz Intel processor. It comes with WiFi, though customers can add 4G connections, too.

I think devices like these will certainly force Apple to upgrade the iPad. In fact, Acer’s release date of April will essentially be a year from the day when Apple’s first-generation device became available, so the device will be due for an update. It looks like we’ve got some healthy competition going on in the tablet market — that is, until a new device makes its debut and draws consumer attention to the next hot machine.

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