Acer Planning Smartphone Despite Assurances

Written by Adam Gosling

Tuesday, 31 October 2006

While the company's senior management is adament the company is not planning an entry into the mobile phone market, the Acer is up-front about its plans to release a new smartphone in the near future. Speaking at a press and analyst conference last week, Chairman JT Wang said Acer will release the new handset either before the end of theis year or early next, according to website DigiTimes. Manufacturing of the new device will be contracted out to Compal Communications, but few product specifications have been released todate. The PDA-style smartphone will be pitched as a poor man's BlackBerry targetting the SOHO and SMB sector according to reports. "It's much more smart than phone," Gianfranco Lanci, president of Acer said assuring reporters that Acer has no plans to enter the mobile phone market. In other news the decision by Acer (which is a formidable manufacturer in its own right) to outsource the making of the planned smartphone devices is a plus for Compal which could have some spare production capacity following Toshiba Corp's decision to source its notebook computers from competing firm, Asustek, according to unidentified sources. According to the report Asustek will start deliveries to Toshiba from May next year. Related news items Palm Goes Consumer With Treo 500v -12/09/2007 Fujitsu Siemens To Give Up On PDAs -13/08/2007 Motorola Nudged Out Of Second Place -04/08/2007 Changing Fortunes For Smartphone Makers -03/07/2007 Acer To Introduce 5 Centrino Pro Notebooks -17/05/2007 Newer news items Emirates First Airline To Allow In-Flight Mobiles -12/11/2006 Vodafone Says Okay To Windows Mobile -09/11/2006 Future Mobile: Samsung P9000 -07/11/2006 Archos To Enter Mobile TV Space With Alcatel -07/11/2006 Hitachi's 2007 HDD Outlook Includes 250GB -05/11/2006 Older news items Alcatel, Samsung To Develop Dual Mode TV Phones -30/10/2006 Microsoft Promises Vista Upgrades -24/10/2006 Not Just A Flash In The PRAM -11/09/2006 Vodafone First To Trial HSDPA In Aus -07/09/2006 As Precited: The End Of WLAN Standards Has Arrived -29/08/2006 Tag This Now: