14 DAY TRIAL // During today's press launch of its latest computer systems, Acer also made some statements regarding the use of Google's Android operating system inside one of its upcoming netbook systems. According to the PC vendor, despite the overall features of Google's Android, the OS isn't quite ready to provide what users demand out of a netbook. However, the company did admit that it was testing Android for netbooks, but for the time being it would stick to Windows-powered netbooks.
Acer isn't the only leading PC vendor that has admitted to testing Android as an alternative OS for its line of small-sized, low-power, Internet-capable computer systems, such as netbooks. HP, Dell and ASUS are some of the companies that are currently toying with Android as a choice for their upcoming devices, including smartphones and netbooks. However, for the time being, none of them have stated that they see Android as a standard OS for their upcoming systems.
“Android in my opinion is for communications,” said Gianfranco Lanci, the CEO of the Taiwanese company, according to a recent news-article on Cnet. “And Windows comes at the market from the computing side. An ideal solution would offer both. So right now we are using Android for our smartphone, and we are testing it on our Netbooks. But I think everybody in the industry is testing Android on Netbooks.”
Despite the growing interest for Android-powered netbooks, Acer believes that the licensing fees for Microsoft's Windows XP aren't that high to justify a considerable move to Linux-based netbooks, especially considering the popularity of Windows machines. However, Android-based systems could provide users with a different overall computing experience and a better price for their favorite netbook.
Acer has big plans for its netbook lineup, as the company believes that this market segment will continue to grow throughout the year, despite the economic downturn.