The Big-Ass Tablets Are Coming!

November 10, 2013 by Dave Haynes

Bryan Mongeau from BroadSign is a very close follower of the Android space, both of the software and the gear. He sent along a note flagging this new smart screen from Acer, as showcased on The Droid Guy blog.

The cleverly-named TA272HUL (rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?) is a 27-inch monitor with a very healthy quad-core ARM A15 CPU and NVIDIA graphics, running Android 4.2 OS. It also has 10-point multi-touch.

The only downside with this thing is that it is just 27-inches, which is kinda small for smart posters, etc.

There’s a constituency out there (that includes me) that thinks one of the big things on the horizon for this space are ridiculously over-sized tablets that make little sense EXCEPT In the context of digital signage and interactive retailing and communication. This thing is supposed to retail at something like $500, which would make it awfully attractive for companies that want to run a native Android player on the panel/device. (My guess is it is more like $1,000, but can’t find it online).

This device is in the general vicinity of what Samsung is doing with its SmartSignage platform – a key distinction being that the ARM-based computing device is somewhat locked down – so that companies need to invest the time to develop to it, using Samsung’s available API. Companies like BroadSign are more interested in the more normal approach you’d see with the PC world and digital signage, where you get a device and develop your own custom image with drivers, etc.

If Acer or the other panel guys go to larger screens, these could be quite interesting.