Acer Inc., one of the world's leading vendors of personal computer systems, has just announced that it has joined the Open Patent Alliance (OPA), in an effort to accelerate and promote the adoption of WiMAX technology. With the announcement Acer becomes the first PC OEM member of OPA, a group that is meant to deliver intellectual property rights (IPR) solutions to support the development and widespread adoption of WiMAX. Joining members such as Intel, Cisco and Clearwire, Acer will help promote the use of WiMAX technology, as well as the devices and applications that take advantage of it.

“Acer has focused on delivering state-of-the-art, innovative PCs to consumers since 1976,” said Jim Wong, senior corporate vice president and president of IT Products Global Operations, Acer. “Consumers today want longer battery life, thin and light, innovative form factors with great processing and communications technology at affordable price. As the first global PC OEM to join the Open Patent Alliance, we hope to lead the charge in bringing several devices that harness the power of WiMAX wireless broadband technology to the hands of consumers worldwide.”

OPA was established in June last year and current members include names such as Alcatel-Lucent, Alvarion, Cisco, Clearwire, Huawei Technologies, Intel Corporation, and Samsung Electronics. All these companies have joined hands for the faster development and adoption of WiMAX technology and solutions, providing PC users with a broader choice for higher-performance wireless network connectivity.

Even before joining OPA, Acer has shown its support for WiMAX with the launch of several WiMAX-enabled notebooks and netbooks, part of the company's Aspire and TravelMate series. With the announcement, we are bound to see more WiMAX-enabled systems being offered by Acer, which aims to become the global leading PC vendor.