Tony's Cabin

Today Acer issued a press release announcing that it has officially joined the Open Handset Alliance. The OHA is the organization founded by Google and others that supports the Linux based Android smartphone operating system.

Acer also said in the announcement that it expects to launch Android based devices in the fourth quarter of this year. The full press release is available after the jump.


London, 1st June 2009-Acer announces its joining of the Open Handset Alliance and expects to launch smartphones based on the Android platform in the fourth quarter of this year.

As a member of the Open Handset Alliance, Acer will work with its members to contribute to the development of the Android platform and bring consumers a far better user experience than much of what is available on today’s mobile platforms. By joining the Open Handset Alliance, Acer demonstrates its support for Android as an open mobile platform and its commitment to Android’s commercial success.

Android is a complete and open mobile phone software stack, featuring an operating system, middleware and key mobile applications. It includes everything a manufacturer or operator needs to build a mobile phone. Android was built from the ground-up to enable developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer.

There are over 40 members in the Open Handset Alliance, including mobile operators, handset manufacturers, software companies, and semi-conductor companies.


By Michael Oryl • June 1, 2009 •
http://www.androidauthority.com/index.php/2009/06/01/acer-joins-open-handset-alliance-says-devices-planned-for-q4-2009/

Acer will finally launch its Gateway branded desktops and notebooks next week, and plans to launch servers and netbooks under the revived badge by the end of the year.

The Taiwanese vendor announced in February that it was reviving the Gateway brand it acquired back in 2007, and said it would ship machines aimed at SMEs and delivered through the channel in March.

However, three months on, it has confirmed that shipments in the UK are unlikely to begin till June. The firm will air its machines next week at Channel Expo, alongside a remote management package it is offering through dealers from Canada-based Level Platforms.

Philip Ashkar, managing director for the UK and Ireland at Gateway, said the products unveiled next week will include 12 inch and 15.4 inch notebooks, an ultra small desktop and a mini tower.

Asked if netbooks - a roaring success for parent brand Acer - would be launched under the Gateway brand, he said the firm expected to launch a netbook aimed at the SME market in the second half of the year.

"The notebook is the device you leave in the office of the home. The netbook is the device you bring around with you," he said. Asked if the vendor was holding off launching an SME flavoured notebook until Windows 7 hits the market he said the timing was "nothing to do” with the much anticipated MS OS.

Ashkar put the delay in getting Gateway up and running down to ironing out the "complexities" of setting up a distribution deal with C2000 throughout Europe, and to perfecting the products for the SME market. For example, he said that research had prompted the firm to ditch much of the usual preloaded software that comes on Acer's mainstream machines, as SMEs would simply wipe it and replace it with their preferred software images.

He denied the current economic turmoil had contributed to the delay. "It is a difficult time, but there are opportunities even in difficult times if you remain focused on the objectives you're after."

The objectives are to sign up 30 to 40 dealers in the UK, all focused on SMEs. Ashkar said no one had signed on the dotted line so far, but that a number of partners were now at the equipment testing stage, while others were assessing the firm's managed services offering. This comes from Canada-based Level Platforms, and Gateway will be the firm's main conduit for selling the service in Europe.

Jeff Campbell, vice president at Level Platforms, said resellers would be free to set the price for the service for their end users. He said the service would inventory their customers' IT assets and offer constant remote monitoring of their systems, as well as patch management.

The service would deliver alerts on customers' problems, so resellers would be able to offer a better service and provide a basis for higher value consulting services. It would also make it easier for resellers to show customers when and where systems needed upgrading. ®


By Joe Fay • Get more from this author
Posted in PC Builder, 15th May 2009 12:35 GMT
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/05/15/gateway_acer/

Acer has been busy showing off one smartphone after the other over the past few months, and making promises about at least one Android-based device, but it now looks like folks in the US will have to wait a bit longer than expected to actually get their hands on 'em. While complete details are a bit light, according to Gearlog, the phones are being held up as a result of some snags with US carriers, and the first phones now likely won't make their debut until some unspecified point in 2010. Presumably, that means the phones are still on track for a release overseas this year, and there's no doubt at least a slight chance that the situation could change over here before the year is out.

[Via Phone Scoop]


by Donald Melanson, posted May 7th 2009 at 6:42PM
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/05/07/acer-says-us-smartphones-wont-arrive-until-2010/

Acer officially launched the first Nvidia Ion powered computer with its nettop AspireRevo last week, and like we have been hearing for months now, the Nvidia Ion netbooks are on the way.

Pocket-Lint.com is reporting that a number of companies are preparing to announce Nvidia Ion powered netbooks in June and many of them will be available as soon as July.

The site’s source was hesitant to reveal which companies would unveil Ion netbooks, but “confirmed that there will be some big announcements from ‘key’ players at Computex, the annual PC trade show in Taipei at the beginning of June.”

Nvidia’s Ion graphics solution combines Intel’s Atom processor with GeForce 9400M graphics. We reviewed the Ion Reference Design and were impressed with its graphics performance and are drooling to finally see it hit netbooks.

April 24th, 2009 by Joanna Stern
http://blog.laptopmag.com/recurring-rumor-nvidia-ion-netbooks-coming-next-month

First-tier PC vendors expect the shipment proportion of notebooks with a magnesium-aluminum alloy or aluminum chassis to increase by the end of the year, according to a Chinese-language Apply Daily report.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) expects magnesium-aluminum alloy models to account for 20-30% of its notebook shipments this year, up from 10% in 2008, while Acer expects aluminum notebook shipments to increase from 15% in the first quarter to 20% by the end of the year, the paper noted.

Apple Daily, April 13; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Monday 13 April 2009]
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20090413PB201.html