Acer has big plans for 2010. Sometime within the coming months the world’s second largest computer maker will launch a 6-inch monochrome ebook reader, cross-platform application store and a Chrome OS netbook — along with probably a crapton and a half of computers under its Acer, Gateway, and EMachines brands. And yes, the company is working on a tablet computer says the president of Acer’s IT Products division. Tablet!
The app store is slated for a June launch and will support Android and Winmo with Google Chrome OS supporting coming later. The apps will be low-cost or free. So far there isn’t any word on the developers on board or if there will be a SDK.
The Acer ebook reader’s launch date hasn’t been announced, but US buyers shouldn’t worry about it anyway. The device is heading to five unannounced European countries first. In fact, it sounds like it may never hit the States. Acer already has content deals worked out in Europe and it seems that Acer knows that it can’t compete with the Kindle or Nook’s distribution and content library anyway.
As for the Chrome OS netbook, details are still light besides that it should launch sometime in 2010’s 3rd quarter. Acer expects to sell at least one million of them this year — or 8% of its total projected netbook sales. An impressive amount for a product that might only be available for 3-5 months in 2010.
Jim Wong, president of IT Products division, quoted by Bloomberg,
“We’re developing something, and we will see what happens” after Apple’s tablet release, Wang said. “We’re going to work either in the Windows world or in Google’s defined OS space.”
So, what if Apple doesn’t announce a tablet? Just asking.