Chicago (IL) – Acer confirmed that it is working on several devices based on Google’ Android operating system, including a smartphone.
On Wednesday, Acer president and CEO Gianfranco Lanci said, “The entire industry is looking at Android,” during the company’s first-quarter investors conference in Taipei. “We are testing Android on a lot of different solutions. We are working on an Android solution for the smartphone, [but] I think it’s too early to say if we’re going to see Android on a netbook in the near future.”
The Linux-based Android OS, developed by Google, was initially designed for use in mobile phones, but analysts predict that the OS will begin to make its way onto many other devices. Thus far, Google has experienced tremendous success, with T-Mobile recently announcing the one millionth sale of their Android G-1 device. This milestone was reached within the first six months of delivering the product to market. Acer feels that the development of a smartphone using the OS is much more reasonable than netbook.
Acer’s announcement follows those of HTC, Far EasTone, and Samsung regarding smartphones, an announcement from Skytone Transmission Technologies that its Android based netbook was in the final testing stages and HP’s confirmation that it was testing the Android OS in netbooks.
