Acer believes there’s still consumer interest in netbooks despite the surging tablet market, and the firm recently said that it’s not giving up on the mini notebooks just yet. “Tablets have impacted overall netbook sales, but we’re not stepping away from the [netbook] segment,”Acer’s senior product marketing and brand manager, Eric Ackerson, told Forbes. “We think there’s still opportunity for sales, including in the U.S.” Acer’s not ignoring the tablet market — its Acer Iconia Tab A500 recently launched in the United States — but it also has some new netbooks up it sleeves that are expected to launch later this summer. The firm believes that netbooks, which are typically priced far below tablets, are beginning to offer an experience that’s on a par with notebooks thanks to bumps in hardware specs. “The death of netbooks is overstated,” Lisa Emard, an Acer spokesperson said. “We may not see the same explosive growth as before, but the netbook price point is still killer,” she added.
