Many companies, including Acer, are working on implementing Android into different devices.
Acer is working on several different devices that use Google’s Android operating system and software and the company is planning to launch a smartphone that uses the software later this year.
“The entire industry is looking at Android,” Gianfranco Lanci, Acer president and CEO, recently said at the company’s first-quarter investor’s conference. “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.”
Lanci said Android is good for communication and Web access, but isn’t sure if it’s right for traditional PCs. He said a smartphone with the software makes more sense than having it on a netbook.
T-Mobile was the first mobile network operator to launch an Android handset, the G1, and sold a million of the smartphones in the first six months it was on the market. However, this is less than the number of iPhones sold in the same time period.
Several more Android smartphones are in the works, including more from High Tech Computer, the G1 developer, one from Samsung Electronics and two from Far EasTone, a mobile network operator in Taiwan.
The netbook market for Android is largely untapped. Hewlett-Packard confirmed earlier this year that it had been testing Android on netbooks and Guangzhou Skytone Transmission Technologies, based in China, has said its Android netbook is undergoing final testing before it launches.
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