NetbookTech

Acer brings the Ferrari brand to the thin-and-light notebook market with today’s introduction of the new 11.6 inch Ferrari One notebook.

One the inside, you’ll find components such as a low-power AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor, ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics, support for up to 4GB of RAM, a 250GB HDD, and Windows 7 Home Premium.

On the outside, you’ll find Formula 1 look and feel all over thanks to the red cover with yellow prancing horse emblem, the checkered palm rest, and the metallic LED-lit power button.

Other notable specs for the Ferrari One (FO200-1799) notebook include:

• AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor L310 clocked at 1.2 GHz with 1MB L2 cache and 800MHz FSB)
• 11.6 inch HD widescreen CineCrystal LED backlit display
• MAD M780G chipset
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD3200 graphics
• 4GB DDR2 RAM
• 250GB 5400RPM SATA HDD
• Multi-in-1 digital media card reader
• Acer InviLink 802.11 a/b/g/Draft-N Wi-Fi
• Built-in Acer Crystal Eye webcam
• Two built-in stereo speakers
• 3rd generation Dolby Home Theater audio enhancement
• Full-size Acer FineTip Keyboard
• 3 USB 2.0 ports, 1 VGA port
• 6 cell Li-Ion battery (5600mAh) with up to 5 hours of power
• Measures 11.2 x 8.03 x 0.9~1.2 inches
• Weighs 3.31 lbs

With a starting price of $599, the Ferrari One breaks the tradition of expensive, high-end Ferrari notebook systems. You’ll be able to get the Ferrari One now at authorized resellers and major retailers nationwide.

DigiTimes reports Acer plans on releasing a Google Chrome OS-powered netbook during the second half of 2010 – presumably once Google has delivered a release candidate of the new OS.

Chairman JT Wang has apparently expressed great confidence that Acer will be the first vendor to deliver a Chrome-based netbook in the market. The real question is, does it really matter that they’re first movers in this market? Just look at recent Acer history with their dual-booting Windows/Android netbook to see why being a first-mover isn’t necessarily a good thing.

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Chinese-language paper, Apple Daily, (via DigiTimes) reports that Acer is expected to launch their new dual-OS netbook featuring both Windows XP and the Android OS sometime in August of this year. The systems are expected to be manufactured by Quanta Computer and Compal Electronics and will likely be priced similar to current Windows XP based Acer netbooks.

ASUS and MSI are also developing Android-powered netbooks but don’t expect any this year.

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Now this is interesting. Acer has announced that they will be introducing a new Aspire One netbook featuring the Android Operating System. According to Jim Wong, president of IT Products Global Operation, Acer Inc.

“Netbooks are designed to be compact in size and easy to connect to the Internet wherever you go,..The Android operating system offers incredibly fast wireless connection to the Internet; for this reason, Acer has decided to develop Android netbooks for added convenience to our customers.”

It doesn’t look like it’ll stop with a single netbook either. The Acer press release states that the majority of Acer netbooks will also offer Android in the future – giving users the choice of either Microsoft Windows or Android (does this also mean that Android will become the de factor Linux-derivative OS for Acer?)

No word on specs but Acer stated that the Android-based Aspire One would be launched in Q3 of this year.

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Acer is clearly looking to extend it’s dominance in the netbook industry with yesterday’s announcement of two new Aspire One models – the industry’s first 11.6 inch Aspire One netbook (model AO751h) and a new 10.1 inch Acer Aspire One model AOD250.

Let’s focus first on the 11.6 inch model shall we? Specs and features include:

• Intel Atom N270 or Z520 processor
• 11.6 inch high definition CrystalBrite LED-backlit widescreen (16:9) display
• Full sized keyboard (oh yeah)
• Mobile Intel US15W Express Chipset
• 1GB RAM
• 160GB SATA 5400RPM HDD
• Multi-format media card reader
• Acer InviLink 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
• Acer Crystal Eye Webcam
• Two built-in stereo speakers
• Three USB 2.0 ports
• Extended 6 cell battery for up to 8 hours of power
• 3 cell battery for up to 4 hours of power
• Multi-Gesture touchpad which allows users to pinch, flick, and swirl their fingers across the touchpad
• Windows XP Home SP3
• Weight of 2.75 lbs
• Measures 11.18 x 7.79 x 1 inch
• MSRP of $379.99

Meanwhile, the new 10.1 inch Acer Aspire One model AOD250 features:

• Intel Atom N270 processor
• 10.1 inch WSVGA LED backlit display
• Mobile Intel 945GSE Express Chipset
• 1GB RAM
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• 160GB SATA 5400RPM HDD
• Multi-format card reader
• Acer Crystal Eye Web Camera
• Two built-in stereo speakers
• Three USB 2.0 ports
• 3 cell battery for up to 3 hours and 15 minutes of power
• 6 cell battery for up to 6 hours of power
• Weight of 2.44 lbs
• Measures 10.17 x 7.24 x 1 inch
• MSRP of $298

Judging from the aggressive pricing, it’s clear Acer is trying to bring the hammer down on the competition. The starting price for the 11.6 inch Aspire One A075h netbook is $349.99. Throw in the 6 cell battery and the starting price only goes up to $379.99. The new 10 inch model has starting prices in the $298 range. Very cool.

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LaptopMag sat down and interviewed Acer’s Vice President of Product Marketing Sumit Agnihotry over the weekend and found out some interesting tidbits about the Acer Aspire One product line and the company’s product plans for the upcoming year. Here are highlights from the interview:

• Price of the 8.9 inch Aspire One will drop to $299
• Demand for the Aspire One with embedded 3G support is there
• Acer is working with mobile providers to provide easier to understand metering plans (other than say.. pay for 5GB of service)
• Expect to see Acer use mainstream, ultra-low voltage (ULV) processors with larger displays (13, 14 and 15.6 inch displays) with a focus on thinner and lighter systems, longer battery life, etc
• Acer will look at the NVIDIA In platform during the second half of this year

Read much more of the interview over at LaptopMag.com.

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Details of the 10 inch Acer Aspire One netbook are finally emerging on the net – this time thanks to macles*. Here’s what we know thus far (none of which are confirmed by Acer mind you). Acer appears to be dropping Linux configurations with the new netbook – instead offering Windows and hard drive configurations. Other specs include a 10.1 inch display, a new multi-card reader replacing the Storage Expansion slot, a single DIMM slot with support for a max of 2GB of memory, and optional Bluetooth/3G networking.

One thankful change to the 10 inch Aspire One is the placement of the touch-pad buttons. They’ve been moved from the sides of the touch-pad to the bottom of the touch-pad. Expect the new Aspire One to be available in white, black, and red.

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Get ready for some netbook price cuts as we enter the fourth quarter of 2008. DigiTimes is reporting that some netbook manufacturers are planning to cut prices in order to clear out their inventory. ASUS has begun price cuts for their Eee PC in Taiwan with the popular 7 inch model dropping to NT 7,999 or $249.75 U.S. dollars. Other ASUS price cuts are as follows:

• 10 inch Eee PC 1000 with Linux will drop to below NT 17,000 or $528 U.S. dollars
• 10 inch Eee PC 1000H with Windows will see a price drop of around NT 1,000 ($31 U.S. dollars)
• 9 inch Eee PC 901 with Linux will drop from NT 17,000 to NT 15,000 ($466.52 U.S. dollars)

Acer and HP have already dropped their respective netbook models with the Acer Aspire One arguably one of the best deals for netbooks out there right now. But who knows – we might see additional price cuts down the road from these vendors if not others.

However if you’re hoping the MSI Wind will get cheaper – forget about it for now. The company isn’t planning to cut prices for the Wind since it’s been unable to lower their own manufacturing costs for the netbook. Read more about it at DigiTimes.com.

DigiTimes is reporting that Acer chairman, J.T. Wang, believes the total netbook market will reach 50 million units by 2009 – that’s a whole lot of netbooks folks. He also thinks that Acer will achieve a 30 percent market share of the netbook market (approximately 15 million units) by then.

And what about netbooks vs notebooks? Wang is like everyone else these days – netbooks will affect sales but by how much?

“Wang acknowledged that netbooks will consume part of the notebook market but said the overlap will only be 20-30%’

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