Acer's Android Phone Is Likely to Come This Year

Taiwanese computer vendor Acer, the third largest in the world, is expected to release its own mobile phone that will run under the Google Android operating system before the end of the ongoing year. In addition, the company is also reported to be working on the development of other phones that will sport the Windows Mobile platform.

“We have not made any formal announcement of an Android-based device, although it’s likely that we’ll have one in 2009,” Aymar de Lencquesaing, Taipei-based Acer’s head of mobile-phone products, said in a television interview today from Singapore, reports Bloomberg. “We intend to have devices that will take advantage of multiple platforms,” he added.

According to de Lencquesaing, the company intends to come to the market with products that would offer an easier way to synchronize data between devices, courtesy of its presence in both the computer and mobile phone areas.

Back in February, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Acer showcased four mobile phone models that were powered by Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, and it intends to unveil some more during the ongoing year, though most market watchers seem rather skeptical when it comes to the company's ability to prove successful in the smartphone area.

“One of the pain points for users around the world is ‘how do I basically port my environment from one device to another?’” de Lencquesaing said. “Because we have a suite of products in the mobile-data space that covers the whole spectrum, we can offer synchronization between all devices.”

Acer intends to become one of the top five handset vendors in the world by 2012, and, in order to be able to achieve its goal, it will release about ten phones in 2009, based both on WinMo and on another mobile operating system, though no details on it have been released yet.