Acer to Phase Out 8.9-Inch Aspire One, Focuses on 10-Inch Netbooks

According to the latest news in the industry, Acer could be considering phasing out its highly-successful 8.9-inch Aspire One netbook, as the company plans to focus on the upcoming 10-inch model. The 8.9-inch Aspire One could be phased out sometime in the second quarter of 2009, according to sources in the industry, cited by Digitimes.

 

Acer's Aspire One, which is manufactured by Quanta Computer, has been one of the most successful products last year, having enabled Acer to seriously compete with ASUS and its Eee PC range of netbooks. The 8.9-inch netbook is built on the same platform as most netbooks on the market, providing users with the computing power of an Intel Atom processor, a maximum of 1GB of RAM and a Windows XP or Linux OS. The system could come to its end of life as early as Q2 2009, as the world's third largest vendor of computer systems is expected to focus on a new 10-inch netbook.

 

It is yet uncertain how many 10-inch models Acer will be releasing, but the company is expected to debut a new netbook sometime in February. The respective ultraportable system has already been leaked on the Internet, providing users with a full range of photos and technical specifications. The 10-inch Aspire One will come with 2GB of memory and an estimated price tag of US$399. However, according to Digitimes, Acer could be further expanding the Aspire One lineup with the addition of two “enterprise models,” which will be outsourced to Quanta Computer. These two netbooks will be offered in an 8.9-inch and a 10-inch form factor.

 

Currently, there are no specific details regarding the specifications and pricing of said netbook but, as with other upcoming products, such details could emerge sooner than later.