As the popularity of tablets continues to soar, tablet makers are lowering prices to increase sales (Apple isn't following this trend yet). There have been rumblings on the Web that Google and ASUS are working on a $99 Nexus tablet but it looks like Acer might be the first company to have bragging rights of having the most inexpensive tablet on the market.

The Acer Iconia B1 has just passed through the FCC, which is always a sign that the device is very close to being made available. Since Acer wants to release a $99 tablet, that means that it will be a low-end tablet to achieve that price point.

The Acer Iconia B1 is expected to feature a 7" screen with a low resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. It will have a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, run Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2, have 512MB of RAM, 8GB of storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, and a microSD slot. Acer will most likely announce this tablet at CES in January 2013 and could possibly beat Google and ASUS to the punch by delivering the first $99 tablet