Acer iMac rival, 10in netbook details slip

Acer will kick off the new year with both an all-in-one desktop and a larger netbook, tips sent to TGDaily would indicate. Corroborating some previous mentions, the alleged information has Acer producing an all-in-one system that would compete against both Apple's de facto leader of the category, the iMac, as well as ASUS' new Eee Top, which brings the basic concepts of a system like the iMac to nettops with very low-power Atom processors and prices at or near $500.

It's unclear whether Acer will lean more closely to ASUS' approach or if it will use more traditional features. A recent leak has pointed to both Acer and Apple sharing new Core 2 Quads for all-in-one systems in January and would push Acer's systems closer to traditional desktop features and prices.

The Taiwan-area PC builder is also said to be readying a 10.2-inch netbook as a superior to its current, 8.9-inch Aspire One models. The system would be closer to a traditional netbook and would ship with traditional 2.5-inch notebook hard drives up to 320GB and would come preloaded with Windows Vista rather than XP. Besides these and the Atom chip, other hardware details are unavailable. However, pricing will reportedly jump to $500, or as much as $150 over a typical Aspire One.