Acer is one mobile phone maker that was expected to release at least one handset running under the Google Android operating system into the wild this year. And while last month said device was only likely to come in 2009, it seems that things are moving into the more certain area, as an official with the company is reported to have stated recently that the Android-based phone would come in late 2009.

Acer's Aymar de Lencquesaing seems to have also said that the company planned on releasing a number of 10 smartphones in 2009, and that only 9 of them would be based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system, while the tenth would be the Android-powered phone that everyone was expecting for Acer to launch this year.

One more thing that needs to be noted here is that the aforementioned Acer Android device, said to be called A1, is very likely to be introduced on the United States market via a carrier as well, though no exact details on a possible deal have been unveiled, except for the fact that the handset hasn't been rejected (as it seems to have happened with Dell's smartphones).

Acer's smartphone running under Android should come with full-touch features, while also sporting a competitive price, at least this is what the company says. Given the specs of the manufacturer's smartphones launched this year, we should expect the Android phone to be full-featured as well, while also being able to attract a lot of users on its side.

As many of you might already know, Acer is only one of the makers that intend to launch devices powered by Google's Android operating system, along with companies like Samsung (which already unveiled its first Android-based handset), LG, Huawei and others. For what it's worth, the Android platform should see a great boost this year, and it is expected to grow by 900 percent compared to its performance in 2008.