Acer Launches Aspire One Mini-Laptop

Acer, today’s third biggest PC manufacturer, has just launched Aspire one, a mini-laptop that it expects to make inroads in the mini-laptop market. The company expects sales of Aspire one to reach 7M units in 2008, and 15M to 20M units in 2009.

Aspire one utilizes the Atom microprocessor from Intel, and operates on either a Linux or Windows XP OS. Other specs are really up to consumers. Choice ranges from having 512Mb to 1Gb of DRAM; NAND flash memory storage of 8Gb or an 80Gb HDD; standard battery (3 hours) or an optional 6-cell battery (+/- 8 hours); and others. Aspire one is Wi-Fi 802.11b/g compatible.

Aspire One is a sleek mini-laptop described by Acer as “smaller than an average diary and at less than 1 kilo… the Aspire one puts freedom in the palm of your hands”. Sweet words but it faces stiff competition from Asustek Computer (Taiwan), which already has a 6-month headway in the market thanks to its release of Eee PC. Computex is another competitor, having just announced new notebook models targeting the mini-laptop niche.

Still, industry leaders are predicting there’s much money to be made in the mini-laptop segment. Specifically, they predict that the need for smaller laptops with 7-in to 10-in screens, weigh less than 1 kg and can easily connect wirelessly to the Internet is a niche ready to explode.

“This segment will be mainstream within the next few years,” according to Acer chairman J.T. Wang at a news conference in Taipei. We’ll see if he’s right.

Aspire one will be available starting July 2008 and will retail for USD399 to USD499.

Via Yahoo News

Image via Acer