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Acer is known mostly as a computer maker but this year they produced 10 mobile phones. Nine of those ten phones ran Windows Mobile and the latter – the Acer A1 – is an Android Phone expected to launch this week. With the company’s cost conscious approach to mobile phone manufacturing it is a REALLY good thing that we’ll be seeing many more Acer Android’s in 2010:
“Next year it will be much more balanced,” Aymar de Lencquesaing told Reuters in an interview.
“There is definitely momentum behind Android. The pace is faster than most would have anticipated one year ago,” he said, adding that the company had no plans to use other operating systems.
Don’t expect a FLOOD of phones but you can bet that Acer will have anywhere from 3 to 5 Android Phones in 2010:
“Our sweet spot is probably 8-10 devices, there we would feel comfortable,” he said.
Considering the word “balance” and the 8-10/year, simple math tells you 3 to 5 can be expected. But there ARE some numbers that DON’T seem to add up.
Acer hopes to obtain 6-7% of the smartphone market in the next 3 to 5 years and their “milestone” set for next year is 1 million units. However, according to the article, 30-35 million units/year would be necessary to reach that 3-5 year goal so the company would be a LONG ways off.
I’m a big proponent of under-promise and over-deliver and perhaps that’s just what Acer is doing here. If they’re to earn distribution in key countries and are producing solid hardware, there is no reason they shouldn’t easily exceed 1 million Android Phones let alone the 5 or so Windows Mobile devices they launch.
I’m really liking where Acer has the potential to go with Android and its exciting to see that for them it will be a focus of their mobile strategy moving forward. But then again, Android seems to be a focus of EVERYBODY’s mobile strategy moving forward and if not, at their own peril.
[Via Reuters]
How stupid can one be to not predict one year ago Android would take leadership?
Take a look at HTC G1 one year ago, see what most reviews and users were saying, and no doubt Android was bound to success.
how do you see maemo in two years ?
maemo 6 to be released first semester 2010 will support capacitive multitouch screens; and as maemo is based on debian, it would be a breeze to port any linux software to maemo…
Every mobile enthusiast (besides iPhone fanboys), know that it’s only a matter of time before Android takes over the smartphone world.
Google is using a chapter out of Microsoft’s playbook by staying out of the hardware arena and making the OS for manufacturers to use, they then upped the anti by making it FREE for OEMs… how can that model fail?
@Cybersedan
A few ways it can fail. Either its crap, which android aint. Or you get gimped versions of the OS flooding the market, thus turning the general public away. Hopefully, this wont happen to android.
So who is the lucky carrier that gets this guy and is this carrier in the US?
We can only pray that Verizon is onboard…
@Ulvhamne
You are correct on both points, on the first point, anything that is crap and or not vigorously supported can fail on that point alone.
I think another major concern is the issue with incompatibility with versions 1.5, 1.6 and 2.0, Google needs to tighten the reigns and work more closely with hardware manufacturers as this is already creating headaches for application developers. I surely hope they are listening.