Acer Says It'll Be First With a Chrome OS Netbook

Acer has promised that it will be ahead of other PC manufacturers when it comes to delivering a notebook running Google's Chrome operating system, setting its sights on a launch sometime in the second half of 2010.

The company's chairman, JT Wang, told Taiwan-based online news outlet DigiTimes that he was confident Acer would be "the first vendor to launch [a] Chrome-based netbook" next year. A U.S. Acer rep confirmed his statement to InternetNews.com.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) only recently released Chrome OS, and that was in beta form. It expects to ship a final product in the fall of 2010. Chrome is built around Google's Chrome Web browser and is geared toward an entirely cloud-based experience.

Acer is not the only company interested in selling Chrome OS-powered devices. Google has acknowledged a number of partners in developing the OS, including Asus, Freescale, HP, Lenovo, Qualcomm, and Toshiba. Only Acer has come out with a launch plan.

This is not uncharted territory for Acer. Earlier this year it unveiled a dual-boot netbook that runs both Microsoft Windows XP and Android, the Google-backed open source smartphone OS. However, that netbook -- the Acer Aspire One D250-1613 -- has not been well-reviewed nor has it sold well on the market, as DigiTimes noted.

The company also has its own Android phone, dubbed Liquid. It's going into an incredibly competitive field, where the Apple iPhone dominates, where HTC leads in Android-based handsets, and most recently, where Motorola has come on strong with its big hit, the Android-based Verizon Droid.

IDC analyst Richard Shim sees it as Acer trying to show that it's not a one-trick pony.

"They want to build the perception that they are not just about cheap products," he told InternetNews.com. "They haven't hit on anything that's been a big success yet, but the batting average for these types of products is pretty low."

"But they did a good job with netbooks," he added, referring to the successful Acer Aspire One lineup that it launched in mid-2008, riding the wave of surging consumer interest in the diminutive notebook form factor.

"Gaining the reputation of being an innovative company isn't something you do overnight and with one product," Shim said. "At the same time, blindly taking on everything that comes along isn't the answer, either."

Additionally, Chrome is a long-term proposal and not a short-term success, he noted, adding that the OS's backers will need to invest heavily in educating the public about the product.

"Basically, what we are looking at is a mobile thin client for consumers," Shim said. "Given this hasn't been that successful with commercial buyers who are more sophisticated, that makes marketing that kind of product more challenging."

Plus, the netbook/notebook market has never done particularly well when it tried to get away from Windows, Shim added.

"What we've seen is anything with an alternative operating system to Windows is poorly received by the market," he said. "We saw that with the first generation of mini notebooks. The challenge was [that] consumers said, 'It does not run my apps.'"

"These products are running up against the fact that these things work like notebooks and people associate notebooks with Windows."