14 DAY TRIAL // Netbooks went through a spectacular fall in prominence during 2010 and 2011, mostly because tablets and, more recently, ultrabooks, have been stealing all the spotlight, but Acer isn't done with them yet.
Acer decided to clearly say that it had no intention of backing out of the netbook market any time soon, or so reports say.
The worries that this might happen emerged in previous rumors, but especially after Samsung chose to slowly phase out of the business.
Then again, the process won't really be that slow, since there will supposedly not be any new Samsung entry-level laptops from 2012 onwards.
Market saturation also didn't exactly spell good things for such machines.
Nevertheless, Acer has no intention of backing out now, and even said that it continues to be the greatest supplier of them, with 1.7 million, or 22% share of the summer sales.
Unfortunately, this also means that it felt the brunt of the netbook decline, since it relied on them so much.
Moving forward, Acer wants to take advantage of the opportunity provided by China, where it can benefit from Dell's retirement from the race.
There is no telling how long that void is going to last, though, especially if Acer hurries to fill it. This could, in the end, just be a short-term solution.
Originally, netbooks had such a great following because they were the right sort of device at the right place and the right time.
During a period of economic downturn, which still hasn't passed, they were cheap but still had all the basic capabilities of laptops.
Now, though, tablets have been taking away their consumer market share, even though Acer's leaders repeatedly denied that this is true.
Also, despite the slow start, Ultrabooks could still end up stealing away the customers seeking light laptops.
Whether or not Acer ends up having to reorient itself will probably become clear by the end of 2012 or so.