Acer to Play Big with Android in 2010

Acer is one of the companies that announced earlier this year that they would come to the market with a mobile phone powered by Google's Android system. The handset hasn't been officially unveiled yet, though reports show that it should become available for purchase sometime in November, hitting the shelves dubbed Acer A1.

But the Android wave is now said to have taken Acer further away from the shore, and the company is reported to plan on releasing several devices running under Google's mobile operating system next year. According to the news site DigiTimes, Acer is poised to put Android on half of the handsets it will release during 2010.

However, the site also says that the focus on Android will not make Acer move away from the operating system it uses more for its devices at the moment, namely Windows Mobile. The shift on its development policy will also determine Acer to maintain tight relationships with its current production partners during 2010.

The future Windows Mobile-powered handsets Acer should launch on the market will be reportedly outsourced to Compal Communications, and will also be contracted to Inventec Appliances, market sources suggest, cited by DigiTimes. At the same time, the same sources state that Acer's Android-based smartphones will be outsourced to Compal Communications.

Said Acer A1 is the first and only Android device the company will bring to the market during 2009, and it will be accompanied in the fourth quarter by a series of mobile phones running under Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system, including the Acer F1 (supposedly boasting a Snapdragon processor inside), L1, C1 and E1. We should also mention that there are great chances for C1 and E1 to prove to be the same device, as DigiTimes' sources pointed towards only three WM-based handsets from Acer, though previous reports suggested they were four.