Today Acer announced its hopping on the ever-growing tablet trend, planning to launch 3 new touchscreen iPad counterparts next year, joining HP and Samsung and the Android tablet market.  There isn’t an official name, or even a price to any one of the upcoming devices, but the Taiwanese company had announced it will launch a Windows-supporting one in February and the two other Android-running devices in April.

“On Tuesday, Acer also unveiled a smartphone with a 4.8-inch screen running on Android and a dual screen laptop with two 14-inch touch screens dubbed the Iconia Touchbook. The company also plans to run its own application store that will sell programs for laptops, tablets and Smartphones.”

Acer is planning on joining the tablet market for good reason; something other manufacturers discovered quite some time ago.  Samsung’s Android Galaxy Tab tablet sold a handsome figure of 600k units worldwide, just a few weeks after the device’s premier.  The Galaxy Tab is targeting iPad users among others, who may now provide a trickier audience to reach after the recent update to the iPad – iOS 4.2 – featuring multitasking, wireless printing, folders, wireless content streaming to TV sets and more.

Moreover, in order to remain instrumental in changing industries through tablets, it is reported that Apple and News. Corp are working together to produce a new iPad-only newspaper called “The Daily” for just 99 cents per week.  Apple is certainly working hard on keeping its offerings’ popularity in the highest possible position, delving into the publishers markt and beyond.

[image credit: Reuters]