gadgets and technology devices: Acer expands market, plans to launch it’s own Tablet, e-reader & App Store

Acer expands market, plans to launch it's own Tablet, e-reader & App Store

Acer already expressed their ambition to be the first PC maker to launch a Chrome OS netbook. Now Acer’s President of IT productions Unit, Jim Wong confirmed it to Bloomberg, while adding that the company is also planning to launch its own e-reader & App Store by mid-2010.

chrome-acer Acer profits surged, after it sold around 10 million netbooks last year (a dual-boot netbook from Acer bombed didn’t see any great laptop reviews though). After launch of its first Chrome netbook Q3 2010, the company plans to power at least 10% of its netbooks with Chrome. Wong said that the company wants to bring about a change in Intel + Windows dominated market and are aggressively working towards being one of the first to launch Chrome netbooks. However, he declined to state whether or not these new netbooks will run on Intel’s chips.

Acer’s App Store was also speculated earlier; Wong finally made it official saying that it will feature “hundreds” of free/low-cost apps for netbooks. The app store will support Android and Windows (and WinMobile) OS, while support for Chrome itself will be added later. This certainly promises to be a rival to the App store that Intel is cooking up (Appup).

Acer also plans to jump onto e-reader bandwagon. The 6-inch Acer Reader, scheduled for a June end launch, would then compete head-to-head with Barnes & Noble’s Nook & Amazon’s Kindle. Wong made a interesting statement saying that Barnes & Noble / Amazon are US-centric and that Acer plans to target West-Europe and Asia-Pacific regions (ah the first competitor to our local Infibeam Pi?). He also said that Acer is already in talks with newspapers/magazines/book publishers to provide content for it’s devices (no names taken though).

As for the Acer’s own tablet, Wong only kept us guessing: