The theory that Google’s Android operating system could spread from cellphones to netbooks has become reality. Acer has confirmed it will offer the system on netbooks starting in the fall.

Acer hasn’t yet announced pricing, but the company’s Jim Wong said the machines running Android would be cheaper than equivalent models running Windows. Wong also said Android models would be particularly attractive to users because the slimmed-down operating system loads quickly, giving “incredibly fast wireless connection to the Internet” after the machine is switched on.

The firm didn’t give a target for sales of the Android models, but has previously predicted overall netbook sales of 10 to 12 million during 2009. That’s roughly a third of its expected overall sales of portable computers.

Acer does, of course, already offer machine running open source operating systems. However, there have been complaints that some netbooks have been sold with Linux-based systems which aren’t ideally suited to low-spec portable devices. Android should avoid that problem and could even be more marketable than other open source systems if manufacturers stress the Google connection, taking advantage of the brand’s reputation for simplicity and effectiveness.

Given that the Android-based machines will be significantly cheaper to produce (licensing Windows must be a fair chunk of the costs for machines retailing in the low hundreds of dollars), it’s possible the move could see an increase in the range of deals offering cheap or free netbooks in return for signing up to a mobile broadband subscription.

One unanswered question is whether the Android-based netbooks will have access to the Android Market, Google’s equivalent to the Apple iPhone App Store.

Acer won’t not be the only firm selling Android notebooks. Rival Asus has demonstrated a version of its Eee PC which not only replaces Windows with Android, but uses a Qualcomm processor rather than the more common Intel Atom processor. Interestingly Qualcomm describes such machines as smartbooks, the idea being to pitch them as super-sized equivalents of smartphones rather than slimmed-down notebooks.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 4:30 pm under Google, Notebook.

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