HP, Dell, Acer, others throwing in the towel on tablets?

HP, Dell, Acer and Asustek are giving up on the tablet market, basically conceding it to Apple, Amazon and Barnes & Noble, according to “DigiTimes” (http://www.digitimes.com), quoting unnamed sources from “upstream supply chains.”

“With Amazon offering its Kindle Fire at US$199 and Barnes & Noble to provide its upcoming Nook Simple Touch at a price of US$99, the pure hardware players are unlikely to profit from the market through price competition,” says “DigiTimes. “… The sources pointed out that although iPad 2 is also seeing strong demand from consumers, sales were lower than those of iPad, indicating that consumers’ strong enthusiasm for tablet PCs has already disappeared.”