However, Acer’s products tend to have some more polish and better aesthetics than Asus products. So they have successfully carved out a niche for themselves that is slightly above the Asus price range. Still, performance-wise, they are at more or less the same level.

Acer has already announced the Z5610 all-in-one quite some time back but live pictures of the device have been scarce to the point of not being there. But now that it has been spotted in the omlette du fromage land, we are quite impressed by it.

It has been about one week since Acer announced the product and now we have live shots of the device courtesy a French tech blog called ‘Le Journal du Geek’. Cool name you guys.

The Acer Z5610 is a touch enabled Windows 7 system whose claim to fame is its 24” HD multitouch screen. With 4GB memory, 320GB Storage and ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570 graphics, it is not going to kill the Sony Vaio line of all-in-ones but it is good competition for the rest.

Looks like it has other points of attraction as well, now that we have seen the live shots. The ambient lighting and the round edges look pretty good to me. I won’t go as far as Acer who calls it a “timeless piece” in their promo. But I am ready admit that it has the right looks and it looks like Acer is stepping up the design game as well. With an MSRP of $899, the price is just right too. It will of course sell for about $800 once it gets out but that’s what MSRPs are there for in the first place.

Acer has more up its sleeve though. It has been working on tablet PCs for quite some time now and we have been through the usual – rumor followed by leaked images followed by live images followed by official announcement. So what are these new devices?

Actually, if you weren’t told you would think you are looking at multiple units of the same model. But no, Acer has decided to bring out, not one or two, but three 11.6” netbook-tablet convertibles that look like copies of each other. They are called 1420P, 1820PT and1820PTZ. The point here is that this type of convertibles haven’t really caught on yet and there are good reasons behind that.

In the beginning, the software wasn’t up to scratch for a proper touch-based UI, the hardware was weak. Now that we have Windows 7, we will probably have better UI but the fact remains that tablets are still considered to be niche devices that are meant for the professionals. And the hardware is still not all that powerful to appeal to the professionals. Besides, they want a digitizer mostly, not just multitouch.

People might be looking for a nice multitouch surface that is bigger than their touchphones but the fact remains that these tablets are not what they have in mind. They are more of the MID crowd who are looking for better mobility and a more compact form factor. Taking it out, turning it, folding it, using it, unfolding it, twisting it back and stowing it away – too much work to get some quick reading or emailing done in the car or the bus. So it remains to be seen how Acer’s marketing team intends to push these devices.

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One of the more popular form factors to have incorporated a multitouch enabled surface is the all-in-one desktop. After Asus and Sony, now it’s Gateway’s turn to churn out an all-in-one system for the mass market. The form factor that was popularized by Apple iMacs, is now seeing a sudden upsurge in the market. From the comparatively lower cost solutions like Asus’ Eee Tops to high-end systems like Sony’s Vaio L series, you can see this form factor in almost every segment.

So now we have two more such systems in the pipeline and this time they are from Gateway. The two models are numbered as ZX6800 and ZX4800 respectively. The former is to have a 23-inch display and a 1920×1080 resolution while the latter is to have a 23-inch display and a 1600×900 resolution. Both their displays will be multitouch equipped and both will be running Windows 7. Gateway won’t be shipping these devices with just the OS either. They will be putting in custom applications for photos, music, videos, etc. that are designed to take advantage of the touchscreen.

They will be quite powerful too. The Zx6800 will be powered by a 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor with 8GB RAM, 1GB ATI Radeon HD470 graphics, 1TB HDD (storage only) and a 64GB SSD (for the OS and the applications). Connectivity will be through the WiFi (b/g/n), Gigabit Ethernet while everything else would take care of by the eSATA and DVD super drive. It will also come with a hybrid TV tuner and 5.1 surround sound audio output.

The ZX4800 will be the lower powered version, hence also the cheaper. It will have a 2.1GHz Pentium dual core processor with 4GB RAM, Intel GMA X4500 graphics and 750GB of storage. Everything else remains the same as the faster model except the TV tuner and SSD.

The ZX6800 and Zx4800 are expected arrive shortly after the worldwide launch of Windows 7. So they should be here by early November.

Another form factor that uses multitouch is the tablet. May be I should say will be using because there aren’t that many true tablets (not those convertible ones) with multitouch around. We are all hearing the rumors about Apple’s tablet and there is the Crunchpad, but they are nowhere near the consumer market. But still, there are smaller companies that are planning to bring out their own tablets before the big cats do. One of them is LBook and theirs is the T9 multitouch slate.

This slate has a spacious 8.9inch touchscreen and will be running Windows 7. It will be powered by the Intel Atom and there is word on market that it will carry 2GB of RAM and 120GB of storage. But the main talking point is the price.

There have not been any official announcements so far but a price range of $350-$375 was received by the folks at the UMPC Portal. If LBook can really get the slate in to the market for that price with may be an optional 3G connectivity, it is likely to become quite a popular device. Given of course that the touchscreen works as it is expected to.

The device has a webcam and multiple USB ports too and also something that from the picture looks like a memory car reader.

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