On Tuesday, Acer launched its first entry into the low-cost subnotebook genre: the Aspire One.
The 'mobile internet device' (MID), which Acer is trying very hard to categorise away from its higher-end laptops, is one of the first machines to be based on Intel's low-power Atom processor. It has a "95 percent"-sized keyboard and an 8.9-inch screen.
Acer hopes to sell seven million of the devices this year alone, although the company's vice president of marketing and brand, Gianpiero Morbello, said at the launch that it could produce even more units "if Intel gives [Acer] more processors".
Morbello said that, for Acer, the Aspire One was "not an entry-level notebook", but should in fact be classified along with Acer's nascent handset business — the company bought the phone manufacturer Eten earlier this year for its expertise, and is planning a big push in the handheld market.
Acer is currently the second-largest notebook producer in the world, behind HP.
Talkback
According to another computer mag Acer is #3 behind Dell and HP. That said, I think this computer could bring Acer up to #2 if they keep the price down.
Yes, on the brink.
With up to 7 hours use (with the upgraded battery) this is the first serious contender for my credit card.
Ah, it's the number 3 computer manufacturer but the number 2 laptop manufacturer, a position it reached in the first quarter of this year. At least, that's what they told us hacks in a very long presentation about the company this morning, when we really just wanted to see the darn machine...
Notwithstanding that the Aspire One is small, light, convenient and attractive, I do hope that the USB ports are sturdy enough to last the life of the computer; and that they have not been sacrificed in the efforts to keep weight down.
I say this because, apart possibly from processor fans and hard drives, this is the most common hardware defect that I meet in laptops from normally considerate users.
In my own case I have two laptops (one Dell, one HP), otherwise useful and sufficent for purpose, whose USB ports have become too slack to be effective. Hence I have to use a cardbus USB device to compensate, but these do not have enough power for an external 2.5 hard drive.
This is good for 2 reasons:
1 - Computers are getting cheaper at the time when the price of everything else is going up.
2 - Another major computer maker pushing Linux, perhaps this will force Microsoft to cut their prices on future operating systems!
If you use Linux... Who Cares , what Microsoft charges, or Apple, for that matter.
Acer Aspire 5315-2153, $348 Walmart Special,Mandriva Linux 2008.1 Spring Edition. The fist Linux distro where everything worked, on this laptop, the first time !
Not only force M$ to cut prices , but maybe, just maybe, it will force them to cut the bloat, improve security, and give the consumer what they want instead of telling them what they want.
Nice to know but pointless without a link to the spec.
Brian
must be good for basic usage..more like the Eee notebooks?
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