宏碁明年拟推售价99美元的平板电脑

Acer Inc. is planning to launch an Android tablet priced around US$99 early next year, a person with direct knowledge of the project, said.

据知情人士说，宏碁股份有限公司(Acer Inc.)计划明年年初推出一款售价在99美元左右的安卓(Android)平板电脑。

The world's fourth-largest PC maker by shipments hopes to be the first big-brand company to launch a tablet priced to jostle with Chinese white-box tablet makers for consumers in developing countries.

以出货量计，宏碁是全球第四大个人电脑制造商，该公司希望成为第一家推出低价平板电脑的大品牌公司，从而与中国白牌平板电脑制造商争夺发展中国家的消费者。

At seven inches with a 1024 x 600 resolution screen and 1.2GHz dual-core processor, the so-called Iconia B1 tablet will have somewhat similar specs to Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire and the Barnes & Noble Inc.'s Nook Color. But Acer plans to undercut those best-selling tablets' $139 price tag by offering the Iconia B1 for around $99, the person said. The final shelf price will be determined country-by-country.

这款名为Iconia B1的平板电脑屏幕大小为七英寸，分辨率为1024×600，配备了1.2GHz双核处理器，规格与亚马逊的Kindle Fire以及巴诺书店(Barnes & Noble Inc.)的Nook Color差不多。但这名知情人士说，宏碁计划把这款平板电脑的价格定在99美元左右，低于上述畅销平板电脑139美元的售价。宏?将按照国别确定在各国的最终售价。

There is a caveat, of course: It's aimed at emerging markets. While the device has been submitted to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for clearance, it's uncertain whether it will actually be sold stateside.

当然，需要说明的是：这款电脑针对的是新兴市常尽管这款设备已经被提交给美国联邦通讯委员会(U.S. Federal Communications Commission)进行审批，目前还不清楚这款产品是否会在美国上市。

Plans for the low-cost tablet began hastily this fall, in response to aggressively priced offering by competitors, the person said. It marks a strategy tilt for Taipei-based Acer, which has been working most of this year to boost its profit margins with high-end products.

这名人士说，为了应对竞争对手推出的定价激进的产品，宏碁于今年秋天匆忙启动了推出这款低成本平板设备的计划。该计划标志着总部位于台北的宏碁公司的战略发生了转变。该公司今年大多数时间都在通过高端产品提升利润率。

'In the past few months, we've made project roadmap changes in response to big changes in the tablet market,' the person said. 'The launch of the Nexus 10 (made by Google Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. with a US$399 starting price) has changed the outlook for what makes competitive pricing.'

这名人士说，过去几个月，我们已经根据平板电脑市场的重要变化对项目的详细计划做了更改。Nexus 10的发布（谷歌(Google Inc.)和三星电子(Samsung Electronics Co.)共同推出的产品，起价399美元）改变了有竞争力定价的前景。

The blue-edged Acer Iconia B1's pictures surfaced this month on a Serbian forum. They were confirmed as authentic by a person familiar with the project and also comes partly as a response to Acer's crosstown rival Asustek Computer Inc., which has been rumored to be brewing up a similarly low-priced Android tablet for next year, the person said.

这款蓝色边框的宏碁Iconia B1的图片本月出现在一个塞班(Serbian)论坛上。一名熟悉这一项目的人士证实了这些图片的真实性，这款产品也是宏?对同城竞争对手华硕电脑有限公司(Asustek Computer Inc.)动向的回应。有传言称，华硕正在酝酿明年推出类似的低价安卓平板电脑的计划。

Asustek spokesman David Chang said the company is not making a $100 tablet and declined to comment further on its product pipeline.

华硕的发言人张伟明说，公司目前没有生产售价100美元的平板电脑的计划，并拒绝对其即将推出的产品进一步置评。

Aside from the Iconia B1, another person with direct knowledge of Acer's tablet products said the company is also planning to launch a low-priced version of its Intel-based Windows 8 tablets early next year, as its current ones are 'too pricey.'

另一名熟悉宏碁平板产品的人士说，除了Iconia B1，该公司还计划于明年年初推出一款使用英特尔(Intel)处理器和Windows8操作系统的平板电脑的低价版本，因为现有的型号太贵了。

Acer's pursuit of lower-priced tablets will cut into its margins, but will help it secure a stronger foothold in the rapidly growing China market, said Daiwa Securities analyst Christine Wang.

大和证券公司(Daiwa Securities Ltd.)的分析师Christine Wang说，宏?寻求推出低价平板电脑将会使利润降低，但是将会帮助其在快速增长的中国市场获得更稳固的地位。

'Chinese white-box tablet makers are expected to sell some 60 million tablets next year, so it is a really big market,' she said. 'None of the major PC brands sells a tablet right now priced to compete with them right now.'

她说，中国的白牌平板电脑制造商预计明年将售出大约6,000万台平板电脑，这的确是一个非常大的市场，目前还没有一家大型个人电脑品牌推出了价格可与之竞争的平板电脑。

The 7-inch tablet market has been getting increasingly crowded this year, with Apple Inc. launching the $329 iPad Mini and Google partnering with Asustek on the $199 Nexus 7 to challenge Amazon's and Barnes & Noble's popular devices of that size .

七英寸平板电脑市场今年的竞争越来越激烈，为了挑战亚马逊和巴诺书店推出的这一尺寸的畅销产品，苹果(Apple Inc.)推出了售价329美元的iPad Mini，谷歌与华硕合作推出了售价199美元的Nexus 7。

Acer slipped out of the top five tablet makers in the third quarter, with its share of global shipments below 1.4%, according to IDC.

据IDC的数据，宏碁在第三季度跌出了平板电脑制造商五强之列，其在全球出货量中所占份额还不到1.4%。