Taiwan’s Acer, the world’s second-largest personal computer maker by shipments after HP, yesterday unveiled a number of new tablet devices and announced a move into the apps and cloud media space. In an attempt to compete with Apple’s iPad, RIM’s PlayBook and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, Acer is covering all bases with the launch of a 10.1-inch Android tablet, a 7-inch Android tablet and a 10.1-inch Windows tablet. The Windows device will be available in February 2011 while the two Android devices will launch next April. A 5-inch Android smartphone was also unveiled, which Acer claims can double as a tablet. The vendor is in talks with US operators for 3G connectivity for its tablets and no prices have yet been specified. It aims to grab about 10 percent of the tablet market, which is expected to grow from 19 million shipments this year to 208 million in 2014.

Acer also announced its Alive store, a single point to buy apps for netbooks, PCs, smartphones and tablets running Android or Windows. It will be available in the UK and Italy by year-end, before being rolled out on a wider scale from the first quarter of 2011. Acer’s offering is slightly different from most app stores as purchases are stored in the cloud and can be accessed from any browser. Rethink Wireless notes that “this multi-platform activity is also supported by an option called cloud-fi, a cloud-based media sharing service that distributes content among any clear.fi devices.”