(Click here for a larger view of Acer's DX650)

Acer, already a leader in the netbook market, announced its entry into the smartphone market last month by sending journalists an invitation (right) to a Feb. 16 launch event at MWC. Meanwhile, the company's entry on the MWC website touts "a range of easy to use devices designed to offer phone capability, simple one hand usability, and complete connectivity."

While Acer didn't say what operating system its new smartphones would run, the company bought Windows Mobile phone specialist E-Ten last year, gaining an existing range of "Glofiish" Windows Mobile phones that are ripe to be restyled or simply rebadged. E-Ten phones already offer consumer-friendly features such as VGA displays, GPS, TV receivers, and FM transmitters, and many include one-handed operation, thanks to a version of the Spb Mobile Shell user interface add-on.

Acer's DX900 (Click image for more information)

Last week, Acer's first planned device was revealed, thanks to a premature listing by U.K. reseller Clove Technology. The Acer DX900 (right) turned out to be a rebadge of the E-Ten Glofiish DX900, first announced in December 2008. For more details, see our earlier coverage, here.

Now, thanks to an illustrated report by Tinhte.com, two more Acer phones have surfaced that don't appear to have any direct E-Ten equivalents. The X960 and DX650 both run Windows Mobile on Samsung S3C6410 processors clocked at 533MHz, have 128MB of RAM and 256MB of flash storage, provide HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) connectivity, and sport GPS receivers using the SiRF starIII chipset, the website claims.


Acer's X960
(Click either to enlarge)
Source: Tinhte.com
The X960 (above) has conventional styling, featuring a 2.8-inch touchscreen with VGA resolution, a three megapixel main camera, and a secondary camera for video conferencing. The DX960 (below, and at the top of story), however, has a more unusual layout. On one side of the phone, there's a 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen display; on the other side, there's a numeric keypad and a monochrome OLED.


Acer's DX960
(Click either to enlarge)
Source: Tinhte.com

Background

Acer's Aspire One Netbook (Click image for further information)

Acer claims to be the world's third largest vendor for PCs overall, and number two in the global notebook market, with 2007 revenues of more than $14 billion. The company owns the Gateway and Packard Bell brands, but was little-known to U.S. consumers under its own name until the arrival of the netbook tsunami. Now, the company's Aspire One (right) is a top-seller. In the third quarter of 2008, the device had a 35 percent share of netbook sales, with more than 2.15 million units sold, according to DisplaySearch.

Further information

Tinhte.com did not provide any further information on the new DX650 and X960, but claimed the devices will be launched next week as part of the Acer MWC event mentioned above. To see the Tinhte report, go here.

For further information about the Mobile World Congress, see the exhibitor website, here.

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