Acer launches 7-inch Iconia Tab

It's probably better that Acer announced its new 7-inch Android tablet, the Iconia Tab A110, before Apple's event next week -- where it's likely to introduce its iPad Mini -- though one might question why the company wants to jump into the mini-tablet market right now.

With the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus already firmly entrenched, and Apple potentially lining up to lay waste to all competitors, it's certainly a curious time to be launching the Iconia Tab A110. Acer can point out that unlike the Kindle Fire HD and also Barnes & Noble's Nook HD, the A110 will run Jelly Bean, the latest version of Android. It also comes with an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and a microSD card slot, which you might need because the A110 only includes 8GB of on-board storage.

Even worse, the resolution of the A110 display is only 1,024x600, which is now a drawback in a post-Retina Display world of pixel-packing. Couple that with a price tag -- $230 -- that is more than the $199 you can spend for the Nexus 7, Nook HD, or Kindle Fire HD, and it's really unclear what the value proposition is for the A110. (Even if you get the Kindle Fire HD without the special offers, it's still cheaper at $214.)

Acer may have had this mini-tablet in the pipeline for some time, and figured it'd be worth releasing it rather than throwing it on the scrap heap. But all signs point to this getting lost in the shuffle against cheaper, more highly visible competitors.