Acer Inc., the world’s third-largest personal-computer vendor, will introduce a mobile phone in September that runs on Google Inc.’s Android operating system, an official at the Taiwanese company said.
The A1, equipped with a touch screen, is among four handset models that Acer plans to debut that month, the person said, asking not to be identified because he’s not authorized to comment on the matter. Henry Wang, a spokesman at Taipei-based Acer, declined to comment. Marsha Wang, a spokesman at Google in Beijing, declined to immediately comment.
Acer would join HTC Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc. and Motorola Inc. in adopting Google’s mobile operating system to meet rising demand for so-called smartphones that allow users to view videos and business documents. The Android software will run 5 percent of the world’s smartphones by next year, according to CLSA Ltd. estimates.
Acer last month unveiled four handsets using Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system, the first models released since its acquisition of phone maker E-Ten Information Systems Co. last year. The Taiwanese company projected in April last year that handsets will account for 10 percent of sales by 2011.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, started Android in 2007 as part of an industry effort to create a free software system for phones. Based on the Linux operating system, Android is open to any programmer who wants to develop features for it. HTC last year became the first phone vendor to offer an Android-equipped handset.
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