Acer Iconia W4 Availability

Acer lists the W4 (32 and 64) on their web site but if you push "buy" it is not available online. Other than the brane-ded Venue, there has been a remarkable lack of media since mid October on the competition also.

The Microsoft store now lists the Lenovo MiiX 2 as the end of December. Amazon has the Toshiba Encore just as available for pre-order with no date. Have to wonder if there is a glitch somewhere (e.g. a video driver problems).

Do know that if they miss Black Friday, all of the Bay Trail tabs are going to be in trouble (and worse if the media has only the Venue (Release date: 11/17/2013 ) to test and label all Bay Trail tabs with it's brush).</rant>

For those who have been on Mars, the Dell is using the Z3740D processor which appears to be a slip in replacement for a Z2760 chassis. So far everyone else appears to be using the Z3740 (no D) which is a 64 bit  rather than 32, has nearly double the memory performance, and can use 4GB of memory instead of 2GB. It is possible that the 1.3GHz 32 bit version will perform even slower than last year's z2760s (W3, W510). </science lesson>

So it's just wait and see. The silence is deafening.

ps don't believe me, I may be biased, just check out the Intel specs and scroll down to "Memory Specifications.

I suspect it is because Intel does not have the thermal mamagement drivers needed for a ventless tablet to be able to run at turbo speed in 64 bit yet. Same thing may be holding back the 4GB memory the processor can handle.

Or it may be a conspircy.

ps B&H may be confused since it lists "B&H # ACW48202671  Mfr # NT.L31AA.005" while the Acer site lists the 32gb Iconia W4-820-2894 NT.L31AA.004 and 64GB  Iconia W4-820-2466 NT.L31AA.002 so do not know what a .005 would be.

The "other" 8" Bay Trail tabs are now featured on Microsoft but no W4. One is advertised as having GPS. I doubt that many realize how important that is for a pocketable tab. 

Think I need to make the "Big 3" (HDMI, USB, and SDCard slots) the "Big 4" and include GPS.

Anyone remember 1985 when computers were made or broken depending on whether they could run three programs: Wordstar, Lotus 1-2-3 (which caused the "640k barrier"), and Microsoft Flight Simulator (which required a compatible BIOS).

Personally, I have changed the "Big 3" must haves, USB, HDMI, SD Card, to the "Big 4" adding GPS. We excused its lack in many ways for Clover Trail while the main competition, Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy both had GPS from day 1. Am afraid we should no longer.

Microsoft's tag line "One device for all that you do." is the future. Sizes will continue to shrink though as we get to design rules under 10 nm I wonder what is next: single molecule gates ? Contact lens monitors ?

I do believe we are in the middle of a paradigm shift and "one device" IS the new reality. Finally I am seing interest in WTG as a means to separate a protected environment from a personal one for a customer who must comply with HIPAA and PIA yet wants BYOD as a cost-saver. (enough acronyms ?)

Along with that the computing device becomes almost incidental and accessorization particularly software is where the real money lies.

With the "Big 4" there is really only one stumbling block left: a common docking station. I see the competion moving that way, just look for "dual display".

ps for 2013 I think that "under $300" is nice but "under $400" with the needed features is what will sell. For 2014 "more" will be expected (2.4 GHz, 4GB, 256 GB SDD).

Well having to have a Bay Trail for development/checkout I really did not have much choice. Am learning why you really do not want to use a single USB port for charging and how to modify a switched hub to make possible.