Acer plans to launch as many as six new smartphones with Google’s Android mobile operating system in the first half of next year, a company executive said Thursday.
The world’s second largest PC vendor this week started rolling out its first Android handset, the Liquid smartphone. The device went on sale via Hong Kong operator CSL on Wednesday and at Far EasTone Telecommunications of Taiwan on Thursday.
“We’re still evaluating the second half,” said Roger Yuen, vice president of Acer’s smart handheld business in Asia. Acer will ship five or six Android-based handsets in the first half of 2010, he said.
Acer plans to unveil Android mobile phones for three price levels, top-end, mid and low-end, as well as models aimed at business users and consumers, he said. The executive declined to say when Acer’s second Android mobile phone will be available.
Liquid, a 3.5-inch touchscreen smartphone with a Qualcomm 8250 Snapdragon chipset inside, was announced earlier this year. The device uses version 1.6 of Android, comes with a built-in GPS receiver for location services and a 5-megapixel camera.
The smartphone will be offered by mobile operators in Europe by the first quarter of 2010 and will continue to roll out around the world, Yuen said. Currently, it is only available through operators in Asia.