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        Acer to offer $50 Windows phone

        Jonathan Angel | Date: Jun 16, 2009 | Comments: 1


        Acer plans to offer a Windows smartphone this autumn for under $50, reports say. The entry-level C1 (left), which will include a 2.8-inch touchscreen and GPS, will be joined by the L1, which adds a slide-out alphanumeric keypad, and the high-end F1, using Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset.



        (Click here for a larger view of Acer's C1)

        The new Acer devices, shown at the company's Computex stand earlier this month, were formally announced today at a news conference in Taipei, according to reports by the IDG News Service and Dow Jones Newswire. It's said the low-priced C1 and L1 represent Acer's attempts to sell smartphones -- which use standard operating systems and accept third-party applications -- to those who previously would have purchased feature phones.

        The IDG story quotes Aymar de Lencquesaing, president of Acer's smart handheld business group, as saying, "In this economic crisis, the replacement rate of feature phones has slowed down." The news service adds that the C1 will cost $50, "or even lower when paired with a contract," while the L1 will be slightly more expensive due to its slide-out numeric keypad. Whether by accident or design, the announcement comes as an interesting riposte to Apple, which last week cut the with-contract price of its popular iPhone to $99.

        Meanwhile, Lencquesaing is quoted by the Dow Jones story as saying "It's not a question of if (users migrate to smartphones), but when." At more than 15 percent per year, the smartphone market is outpacing the PC market "for sure," he is said to have added.

        Acer's new phones

        Today's reports included no further information about Acer's C1, L1, or F1, but some information has already emerged from Taiwanese retailer ePrice.com.tw, which provided descriptions and photos taken at Acer's Computex stand. The C1, pictured at the top of our story, will include a 2.8-inch touchscreen display, a 528MHz processor, a two megapixel camera without autofocus, GPS, and the Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional operating system, ePrice says.

        Also noted by ePrice was the L1 (right), which again includes a 2.8-inch touchscreen display, but adds a slide-out numeric keypad. The L1 will include GPS as well, according to a placard on the Acer stand, but no other hardware details were provided.

        Meanwhile, Acer's high-end contender is the F1 (below left), which appears to be only the second smartphone to use Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset, providing the device with an ARM CPU clocked at 1GHz, plus a 600MHz DSP (digital signal processor). Snapdragon, previously adopted by Toshiba's TG01 Windows phone, offers an integral GPS receiver, day-long battery life, HD video playback, and support for cameras up to 12 megapixels, according to Qualcomm. (For more information, see our previous Snapdragon coverage, here.)


        Acer's F1
        (Click image to enlarge)
        According to ePrice, Acer's F1 matches the Toshiba TG01 in having an 800 x 480 touchscreen display, though the F1's screen is a little smaller than the TG01's, at 3.8-inches diagonally. Equipped with a five megapixel camera, the smartphone is said to have a top-mounted 3.5mm headset jack, includes GPS, and includes backlit, touch-sensitive keys below its display. The F1 runs Windows Mobile 6.5, but when it ships may also include a custom user interface created by Acer, the website says. (Acer has employed Spb Software's Spb Mobile Shell on past devices.)

        Acer's new phones, part of what the company brands as its "Tempo" series overall, may well be the first to be designed completely in-house by the company since its acquisition of E-ten last year. Other smartphones in Acer's Tempo line, some of them rebadged E-ten devices, have included: