Acer and Asus will use the Computex trade show in Taiwan in June 2010 to reveal new touch screen tablets. The announcements comes 48 hours ahead of Apple offically launching their iPad in the USA.
Last night in the USA Elan Microelectronics, based in Taiwan, filed a lawsuit against Apple with the U.S. International Trade Commission. The action comes only weeks after Apple took action against Taiwanese Smartphone Company HTC.
The lawsuit deals with the use of multiple fingers on a touch screen device and is aimed at preventing the import of any Apple multitouch product into the United States, including the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, MacBook and Magic Mouse.
Taiwanese Companies including Acer, the world’s third-largest PC vendor, and AsusTek are currently developing or assembling up to 10 tablets for foreign makers, said Li Chang, an executive of the Taipei Computer Association.Among those we are able to identify are Hewlett Packard, Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba and Fujitsu.
Acer and AsusTek are expected to display tablet PCs at the Computex show in Taipei on June 1 to 5, Li said.
Officials at Acer and AsusTek declined comment. But Taiwan’s Economic Daily News quoted unidentified sources as saying the two firms will launch tablet PCs in the third quarter this year with a price tag below $400.
Apple’s iPad tablet computer hits U.S. shelves on Saturday and the Australian release is planned for later in April. The iPads will connect to Wi-Fi networks and cost $599, $799 or $799, depending on the data storage capacity. Versions with 3G wireless connections will cost $200 more.
The Topoly Research Institute, said yesterday that tablet PCs might cut into shrinking sales of mini-laptops known as netbooks, a market dominated by Acer and AsusTek.
By 2012, sales of tablet PCs could reach 50 million units worldwide, surpassing the figure for netbooks, they said.
Currently Apple is fending off several patent claims from both European and Asian patent holders. Elan filed against Apple with the U.S. District Court last year, but in a different venue. In the District Court case, Elan seeks triple damages and a “reasonable royalty,” but the ITC’s power is limited to injunctions, arguably a more severe penalty than monetary damages. Observers claim that Elan is exploiting a loophole that essentially lets firms sue twice on a single patent. Apple used the same tactics its patent lawsuit against HTC, filing with both the ITC and the U.S. District Court.
Apple has tried to claim ownership of multitouch in the past and was recently granted a major multitouch patent for capacitive displays. The company even trademarked the term “Multi-Touch.” In February 2009, Elan issued a press release saying Apple’s patents are different because they deal with specific user commands rather than multitouch technology. Obviously, Elan still believes its existing patent, awarded to Logitech in 1998 and since transferred to Elan, is being infringed.
