Acer bowls into handset market with eight new devices

PC vendor Acer waded into the smartphone market yesterday when it unveiled eight new mobile devices.

The smartphones will target a range of consumers, with top-end devices to more basic handsets. Talks between Acer and operators in the Middle East are taking place, but it is unclear which of the handsets will be sold in the region.

At a press conference at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Acer said that its aim was to “establish Acer as the world’s leading mobile solutions company,” with the goal of becoming “one of the top five in the smartphone market in the next five years”.

“We’re not coming into this market and hoping for a home run; one size doesn’t fit all so we have addressed the market with multiple form factors,” said Aymar de Lencquesaing, president of Acer’s Smart Handheld Business group.

At the top end of the range, the M900 has a 3.8 inch touchscreen with a slide out keyboard, a five megapixel and a fingerprint sensor. Some of the devices also feature a “widget based” interface, which will allow users to customise their devices, while Acer claims that the DX900 is the first dual Sim smartphone.

There are also lower specification devices for the price conscious consumer and emerging markets. “We want to encourage migration from feature phones to smartphones,” de Lencquesaing said. “We won’t force 100% of the devices on a market, but we will offer them.”

Yohan Bibay, marketing VP for Acer’s Smart Handheld Business group, said that Acer is speaking to carriers in the Middle East. “We are in the early stage of the engagement with them, and definitely there is tremendous interest.”

The first eight devices feature Windows 6.1, while a further undisclosed number of handsets will be launched in the second half of the year with Windows 6.5 operating system.

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READERS' COMMENTS

acer smart moves
Posted by rajeev bajpai, delhi, India on Wednesday 18 February 2009 at 07:21 UAE time


acer continues to demonstrate that it is reading the market well ahead of the other fellow companions. The lead in Netbooks is a shining example. After buying E-ten about a year back now they have launched the products which i presume that they will be succesful even if they don't reach the 10% marketshare..on the other hand its all very likely. With the launch of smart phones acer is in a unique /unrivalled situation where they have product in the fastest growing segment of the PC/telecom industry. All their moves seem to be working.

DX900
Posted by A M Rawof, Dubai, U.A.E. on Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 19:25 UAE time


Smartphone Market is growing now, may be good time to launch now to capture the market, hopefully DX900 is much cheaper than other brands and stable units than so called PDAs.

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