Acer, the world’s second- largest computer vendor, plans an online applications store and its first electronic book reader by mid-year, reports Bloomberg.
The company also plans to introduce its first netbook running Google’s Chrome operating system in the third quarter, said, Jim Wong, president of IT Products division in a Jan. 22 interview at Acer’s Taipei headquarters.
By the end of June, Acer will announce its first electronic book reader featuring a 6-inch monochrome screen, and distributed initially in up to five European countries, Wong said. The device would compete with Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble Inc.’s Nook and Sony Corp.’s Reader.
“Amazon, Barnes & Noble; they are U.S.-centric. In Western Europe and Asia-Pacific we have publishers to work with, and most of them are content owners,” Wong said. Acer is talking to magazine, newspaper and book publishers to provide content for its device, he said without naming them.
The applications store will be unveiled around the middle of the year with software to support Google’s Android platform, currently used on Acer’s netbooks and smartphones, as well as Microsoft’s Windows and Windows Mobile systems, while Google Chrome software will be added later, Wong said. Applications will be low-cost or free, he said, declining to specify a price or name developers.
Chrome, an operating system for computers, will be in at least 10 percent of Acer’s netbooks once the PC maker releases its first device in the third quarter, Wong said. So-called dual-boot netbooks, which feature both Windows and Android or Linux, currently account for 5 percent of the devices, he said.
“For Chrome, we’re aggressively pursuing to become one of the first, so there’s a change to the Microsoft-Intel environment,” Wong said. One million of the 12 million to 15 million netbooks Acer sells this year will feature Chrome, he said, declining to say if the device run by that system will feature chips from Intel or ARM. Acer sold 10 million netbooks last year, he said.
The addition of a Chrome notebook and tablet computer will help the company overtake Hewlett-Packard as the world’s top PC supplier by 2013, Chairman J.T. Wang said in a separate Jan. 22 interview. Apple’s tablet PC, expected to be released this week, will provide inspiration for Acer’s own product lineup, he said.
Nick Bilton of the New York Times put together this segment-by-segment comparison, which pinpoint who competes with whom and where.
Apple’s rumored tablet, likely to be announced this Wednesday, will have “a very-readable 10-inch glass screen smaller in size than the Kindle DX with a similar weight.” The Apple people also mentioned that the “software was the key to the experience and it would be the game changer”.
According to research firm DisplaySearch, the e-reader market increased from approximately five models in 2007 to approximately 20 in 2009. The firm expects the e-paper display market for e-books and textbooks to increase from roughly 1 million units in 2008 to 77 million units in 2018.
