Acer Android Netbook Delayed, Possibly Terminated
We’ve hear SO much about Android Netbooks over the past year, often courtesy of Acer. They joined the Open Handset Alliance in June and the world is waiting for the unannounced Acer A1 Android Phone and an Acer Android Netbook for August Launch. The latter of those won’t happen in August… and might not EVER happen.
According to DigiTimes, demand isn’t high enough:
Although Acer had originally announced plans to launch a dual-OS netbook with both Windows XP and Android in August, further evaluation has found demand for an Android netbook is not strong enough, and it has therefore decided to postpone the launch of the model.
With Google announcing Chrome OS for netbooks next year and Windows 7 perfectly capable of running on netbooks this holiday season, I agree that an Android Netbook might miss its mark. It might do perform decently well, but why put the effort into an Android Netbook when right after you’ll have to rework your line for Chrome OS?
This is disappointing and certainly blurs the line of Android/Chrome OS even further as manufacturers struggle in knowing what to adopt and when. Where will each of these projects overlap and how will it all end up when all is said and done?
Don’t get your hopes up for an Android Netbook from Acer anytime soon… if ever. And don’t count on other manufacturers working on an Android Netbook. At least until we know more about Chrome OS and I’m guessing Android will be a part of that somehow/someway.
Discuss.