Android goes A-list: Acer’s Google-powered netbook

Acer has become the first top-tier PC maker to confirm it will release a laptop running on Google’s Android operating system rather than Microsoft Windows.

Previewing an Acer Aspire One running Google’s OS at the Computex trade show in Taipei, Acer's global president of IT products, Jim Wong, told a press conference that Android offers "incredibly fast wireless connection to the Internet."

Acer is the world’s second largest notebook maker.

The Taiwanese company expects to ship between 32 million and 35 million notebooks this year, around 10 million of them in the fast-growing netbook market (ultraportable, paperback-sized laptops that sell for $750 or less).

The world’s largest notebook player, and largest PC maker overall, HP, has confirmed it is experimenting with Google’s OS but, like Dell, has yet to say if it will take an Android netbook to market.

Yesterday, Asus, the Taiwanese hardware maker that pioneered the netbook, announced an Android netbook.

Like Acer’s Aspire One, it will be released later this year.

While Asus’ netbook runs on Qualcomm’s SnapDragon processor, which offers all-band 3G on its chipset, among other comms frills, Acer sticks to the more conventional 1GHz Intel Atom chip for its coming version of the Aspire One.

The Aspire One will also be available in a version running Windows, Acer says.

But the Aspire One running Android will be cheaper.

Microsoft - which yesterday lifted the three-app limit on the Starter edition of Windows 7 - is racing to get its new OS out the door before laptops running Google-only software hit shelves.

Both the Android-powered Acer AspireOne, and Windows 7, are due by the end of October.