All Acer Dual-Core Netbooks to Get Android and Windows

Even though netbooks have, thus far, mostly stuck to the Windows 7 operating system, Acer may be meaning to put a stop to this situation by loading all of its future dual-core netbooks with two operating systems instead of just one.

According to a report issued by Digitimes, Acer may be intent on combining Android with Windows on a significant number of upcoming netbooks.

The Android OS has, so far, mostly stuck to the smartphone segment and the tablet market, though most slates have yet to make their official debut.

Acer revealed a so-called dual-boot netbook, which is a laptop with both Windows 7 Starter and Android, back in early August.

This device, known as the Acer Aspire One D255, is now being released, in Taiwan and will supposedly be followed by others.

According to the aforementioned report, Acer Taiwan president Scott Liu stated that netbooks won't be replaced by tablet PCs, citing figures from Gartner to back up this claim.

These announcement were made at a new netbook launch press conference, where new dual-core models were announced.

They will supposedly be based on the Intel Atom N550 central processing unit and will be pre-loaded with both Windows 7 and a version of Android.

In related news, analysts seem to think that there is a fairly bright future ahead for the netbook market.

Gartner's figures point towards shipments, during 2010, of 36 million units, a figure set to jump all the way up to 50 million by 2014.

As for the company's own plans, Acer seeks to pass the 40 million threshold when it comes to its entire laptop business, out of which 10 million are expected to be netbooks.

Google's operating system is seen as a means of stimulating demand because is cost quite little and will let consumers use their mobile PC more efficiently.