Acer OZ To Launch Smartphones And New Netbooks
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Acer Australia is set to move into the mobile phone market and is currently recruiting senior management to run a new communications division. They are also set to launch a new range of netbooks and notebooks in an effort to expand their share of the market.

Acer Australia is set to move into the mobile phone market and is currently recruiting senior management to run a new communications division. They are also set to launch a new range of netbooks and notebooks in an effort to expand their share of the market.


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 Among those netbooks will be models that run the Google Android Operating System the Company has confirmed. 

The Taiwanese Company who are #1 in the European notebook market is also set to launch a radical new range of PC’s which they believe will changer consumers attitudes towards the PC which has been losing market share to notebooks.

Speaking to ChannelNews Bert Noah the General Manager of Acers Consumer Technology and IT Division said that he was confident that Acer would retail their #1 position in the Netbook market while challenging for the #1 notebook vendor position.

“We are # 1 in Europe in the mobile notebook market and I am confident that with our new line-up of notebooks and Netbook’s which we will start launching in April we can expand our presence in the market here in Australia”.  We have new styling and we are also looking at a brand new range of desktop devices that we believe will stop the decline in PC sales”.

He refused to elaborate on what these devices consisted of or whether they were large screens with the PC processing capability built in.

He did however confirm that Acer is set to be a serious player in the mobile phone market in Australia and that they are currently recruiting a management team to operate a new Acer mobile division.

 


He also admitted that they had already spoken to several mobile phone carriers in Australia.

“Yes we are going into the mobile phone business in Australia. After Acer purchased E Ten who are an Asian manufacturer we are in a position where we are now recruiting for personnel to launch our new range of mobile phones” he said.

Acer’s line-up will consist of at least four models including the Acer-developed Windows Mobile 6.5 phones for both the top end and bottom end of the market.

Acers’s H2 model will use Qualcomm’s 1-GHz Snapdragon chipset. It has a 3.8-inch, 800-by-480 touch screen. However Acer Australia has not decided whether the device will be given away for free with a phone plan.
Another one of their models is the L1 which looks like a sliding feature-phone but runs Windows Mobile.

All of Acer’s Windows phones have an Acer developed skin which sits on top of the Windows Mobil operating system however this work against them as Microsoft’s biggest manufacturer HTC found out when they launched a Windows Mobile Phone with a similar skin. They are now pushing Google Android based phones over the Windows Mobile operating system.

 

Acer is also developing at least two Google Android-powered phones with the possible line-up for Australia consisting of two Windows Mobile offerings and two Google Android offerings.


Acer Australia has also confirmed that they could well launch a Netbook later this year that runs the new Qualcomm’s 1-GHz Snapdragon chipset.

Noah said “We are not playing in the large enterprise market and this is going to be beneficial to Acer as this market has stopped buying due to the economic downturn. We believe our growth will come in the consumer technology and small medium business market which appears at this stage to be reasonable buoyant. This coupled with the pending launch of several new products places us in a strong position moving forward” he said.