Acer Plans Dual Boot Android, Windows Netbooks

Acer Aspire One AOD255

Acer this week reportedly decided to incorporate its dual-boot feature for netbooks to run both Android and Windows 7 in all of its upcoming dual-core notebooks.

The announcement follows the company's launch earlier this week of its first netbook with a dual-core Intel Atom processor, the Aspire One AOD255, for a suggested retail price of $330.

At a press conference to announce the new devices, Acer reportedly said that all of its future dual-core notebooks will run both operating systems. The move is expected to give users more versatility by having an operating system they know and can run advanced tasks, while also providing the option of using the Android OS for functions like surfing the web, messaging and multimedia. That, in turn, is expected to translate into increased consumer demand, and Acer has reportedly said it will cost them little to produce, as manufacturers don't have to pay licensing fees to use Android.

The dual-boot feature is already available in Acer's Aspire One D250 and D260 models, along with the Aspire One D255, which has a single-core Atom N450 processor. Dell has also tried running Linux Ubuntu OS on some of its laptops, but with mixed results. Running two operating systems on a laptop or desktop is not uncommon, but is generally done using Linux and Windows. However, it is more unusual for the feature to be made a standard specification.

Android usage in tablets is becoming far more prevalent with several set to launch with the OS within the year, and there are predictions that more netbooks will be powered with Android as well.

By the end of 2010, Acer is planning to ship 40 million notebooks, of which 10 million will be netbooks, according to DigiTimes, which also reported that Acer Taiwan President Scott Lin said in a news conference that netbooks will not be replaced by tablet PCs.