Coby to release five Android ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ tablets in 2012 first-quarter

In a Friday announcement, consumer electronics manufacturer Coby Electronics said that the 2012 first-quarter will witness the company releasing as many as five new tablets which will run Google's latest Android OS iteration - the 4.0 or `Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS)' version.

The unveiling of the tablets by Coby will reportedly come at the early January-scheduled Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas; and the move will make the company one of the first consumer electronic device makers to run the next-generation Android operating system.

The five new ICS-equipped tablets which will be released by Coby include MID7042, MID8042, MID9042, MID9742, and MID1042; which will respectively be 7-inch, 8-inch, 9-inch, 9.7-inch, and 10-inch tablets. Coby is already selling its $199, 7-inch Kyros MID7015 tablet which runs the Android 2.1 version.

Going by the information shared by Coby, which refrained from divulging the new tablets' price-related details, the key features of the forthcoming devices will include capacitive multi-touch screens, a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, up to 1GB of RAM, expandable memory up to 32GB, Wi-Fi, and HDMI 1080p output.

Expressing pride at the fact that Coby would be "among the first companies to make available a wide range of the newest, Ice Cream Sandwich-operated units," the company's VP for marketing Jodi Sally said that the release of the tablets would clearly highlight the company's commitment "to meeting the demands of a broad base of consumers with innovative products in the hottest CE categories."