Acer: Android Doesn't Deliver "Total Internet Experience" On Netbooks

Acer may have thrown down some new netbook love this week, but it doesn't mean they're getting ready to join in with the latest trend: putting Google's Android platform onto the budget ultraportables.  At the company's launch event, Acer's business IT product manager Jim Wong told reporters that while the company plans cellphones using Android, he believed the platform isn't ready for the "total internet experience" on netbooks.

"For a Netbook, you really need to be able to view a full Web for the total Internet experience, and Android is not that yet" Jim Wong, Acer

That's not to say that Acer hasn't been experimenting with netbook builds of Android, and may consider revisiting the platform's suitability at some point in the future.  CEO Gianfranco Lanci confirmed that experiments had taken place with Android, but that right now Acer is happy with Windows XP.

"Android in my opinion is for communications, and Windows comes at the market from the computing side. An ideal solution would offer both. So right now we are using Android for our smartphone, and we are testing it on our Netbooks. But I think everybody in the industry is testing Android on Netbooks ... XP is a good solution for the price performance. If you look at it, the number of devices that are sold with Linux is very small" Gianfranco Lanci, Acer.

Lanci went on to hint at a possible deal with a US carrier to offer subsidized netbooks with 3G capabilities.  While he did not name the specific company with whom negotiations have been taking place, industry rumors have tipped Verizon Wireless as the most likely candidate.

[via jkOnTheRun]