Holding your breath for an Acer e-reader? Well, you can exhale. The Taiwanese company said Monday it would not be jumping into the e-reader market for now, despite announcing less than a month ago plans to launch a reader by mid-year.
While the PC maker has prepared prototype hardware, Acer Chairman Wang Jeng-tang told reporters the e-reader market still isn't that big and the company is "studying the feasibility" of entering the sector, the Taipei Times reports.
The increasingly crowded e-reader market, of course, may have gotten a whole lot more competitive with the January 27 unveiling of Apple's iPad, which debuted just days after Acer announced its plans for a 6-inch monochrome e-reader. Acer said at the time it would initially aim the device at the European market, which might have helped it gain traction before hitting the States. But that's a moot point for now.
In January, Acer also announced plans to launch an online app store, which presumably is still on track. The company jumped squarely into the smartphone ring with the beTouch E110 and other Android phones announced last week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.