Acer Aims To Shake Up Mobile Market, Release Sub-£50 Smartphones
CeBIT is going on at the moment in Germany, and is ‘the world’s largest trade fair showcasing digital IT and telecommunications solutions for home and work environments’ according to Wikipedia.
We would go, but Omio is limiting itself to only one hectic trade show a year, and Mobile World Congress took that honour.
There is still no shortage of interesting information regarding what’s new in mobile phones, and today we discover netbook champions Acer are throwing their hat into the telecoms ring with verve and vigour…
They have announced no less than four new devices, all powered by spanking-new Windows Mobile 6.5. The Acer C1, Acer E1, Acer F1 and Acer L1 handset are the order of the day, and with no pictures, we just hope they spent more time designing than naming them…
The Acer F1 will not be camera-shy, sporting a 5 megapixel snapper, whilst the Acer L1 will be a slider handset featuring an alphanumeric keypad.
The interesting ones are the Acer C1 and E1, both smartphones due to their WinMo credentials, and both entry level due to their insanely cheap proposed price! Both should be available to consumers at no more than €49, and will be offering “smart phone functionality at the same price as a feature phone,” according to Acer boss Aymar de Lencquesaing.
It seems that they plan to stimulate usage of technically superior devices, with the simple plan of driving down the cost enough to get smartphones in the hands of everyone. As more people access the web on their mobile, Acer understandably wants to be a part of that.
With a third quarter ‘09 release pencilled in, it looks like Apple has opened the floodgates for many more manufacturers to try their hand at the mobile phone game, and rightly so. However, if Acer thinks they can simply provide a cute and functional device as they did with the netbook market, they should think again.
Mobile phones need to have style and finesse, be a fashion accessory as well as work in an intuitive fashion. The user experience is far more unique than with a PC, interfaces differ between handset ranges, let alone brands.
To succeed, Acer will have to provide both something new and something cheap. Let’s hope that then can tick both boxes with their new line up…
Source: Pocket Lint
[...] all the major lappy manufacturers getting their toes wet (or in Acer/Asus‘ cases diving straight in!) in the mobile phone market, it was a strange anomaly that [...]