Acer and Lenovo are planning to introduce quad-core Android tablets in the early 2012. The new tablets should take on Asus’ Transformer Prime and upcoming quad-core designs from Samsung.

Both new tablets are said to feature Ice Cream Sandwich and Tegra 3, so they will be closely matched. With the Android tablet market shifting to cheaper devices such as the Kindle Fire and Nook, it is safe to assume all vendors will have to slug it out with competitive pricing.

However, the new quad-core tablets are projected to cost between $459 and $599, which is hardly a bargain. Earlier this month Nvidia said its goal for 2012 would be to bring down Tegra 3 tablet prices to $299. It doesn’t take a math whiz to figure out we are still a very long way from seeing affordable quad-core tablets.

More here.