Acer CEO announces support for Android

Acer has been quite candid about its move into the smartphone sector, and is expected to launch around ten new handsets this year, many of which will be rebranded E-Ten designs from the mobile phone maker Acer acquired in late 2008.

The company launched eight phones at a conference in Singapore last week, almost all were powered by Windows Mobile, but Acer has expressed increasing interest in Android-powered handsets, causing speculation that the company would be coming forward with one in the near future.

At the company's first quarter investor's meeting in Taipei, Taiwan today, Acer's president and CEO Gianfranco Lanci said Android was being tested on several different hardware solutions, adding, "We are working on an Android solution for the smartphone...I think it's too early to say if we're going to see Android on a netbook in the near future."

Late in March, Acer refused to comment on its work with Android, dismissing it as rumor and speculation; and as recently as last week, the company said it still had no commitment to Android, but that support for the open OS was likely to come some time in 2009.

So at least now, Acer can openly embrace the mobile operating system that everybody is talking about.