Acer Enters Smartphone Market

by Jennifer Johnson — Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 12:28 PM EDT

Acer announced plans to enter the smartphone market at the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009. Several Acer executives, including CEO and President Gianfranco Lanci, announced the company’s plans to bring more than 10 smartphones to the market this year. Acer showed off eight of those devices at its press conference in Barcelona.

Collectively known as the Acer Tempo series of smartphones, all of the handsets run Windows Mobile. Acer said that there are plans for other operating systems, but didn’t specify which ones. The new devices will range from high end to the low end to reach a diverse customer base. Here’s a look at the first four devices that are set to hit the market in March and April.

Acer M900: Designed for business users, the M900 has a slide out QWERTY keyboard and a 3.8-inch WVGA touchscreen. It also has an embedded fingerprint scanner, GPS, HSDPA support, and a 5MP camera.

Acer F900: The F900 has a 3.8-inch WVGA touch screen but lacks a physical keyboard. The device is optimized for Web browsing with Internet Explorer Mobile 6 and support for JavaScript and Adobe Flash Lite. Other features include a widget-based home screen, GPS, Wi-Fi, HSDPA/HSUPA, and a 3.2MP camera.

Acer X960: A more consumer-centric device, the X960 has a touchscreen with a widget-based Today screen which provides users with quick access to important information. The X960 also has built-in GPS, a 3.2MP camera with flash, and a front-side camera for video calls.

Acer DX900: Acer touts the DX900 as the world’s first dual SIM smartphone which lets you have two numbers associated with the device. This device will be ideal for globetrotters or for those who want to have a work and personal number without carrying two phones.

Acer also plans to release the Acer L1 and the Acer C1 in the second half of 2009. These entry-level devices are targeted at first-time smartphone users. Acer expects them to be reasonably priced—about 49 Euros (about $62) or less with carrier subsidies.

Acer is currently speaking with service providers and plans to make carrier announcements in the coming months.

Tags: Acer, smartphones, Mobile World Congress

Jennifer Johnson

Jennifer grew up around technology. From an early age, she was curious about all things related to computers. As a child, Jennifer remembers spending nights with her dad programming in BASIC and taking apart hard drives to see what was inside. In high school, she wrote her senior term paper on her experiences with building custom computers.

Jennifer graduated from the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. After college, she began writing full-time for various PC and technology magazines. Later, she transitioned to the Web. In these roles, Jennifer has covered a variety of topics including laptops, desktops, smartphones, cameras, tablets, and various consumer electronics devices. When she's not playing with or writing about the latest gadget, Jennifer loves to spend time with her family, capture memories with her camera, and scrapbook.

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