Acer Unveils 11.6-inch Aspire One, Affordable Aspire Timeline Series

Greetings from the Liberty Science Center. A few members of the LAPTOP team are here, where Acer just announced more than 20 products, including 11.6-inch and 10.1-inch netbooks, two lines of Gateway notebooks, two Acer lines, and a nettop. New Notebooks and Netbooks First, the netbooks. Acer is calling these the second generation of netbooks. They include a 10.1-inch and an 11.6-inch Aspire One ; the latter, the company says, is better for video streaming and can be glimpsed in our hands-on video. Both models are less than an inch thick, a sizeable decrease over the current Aspire One’s thickness. Gateway is also getting netbooks in the same form factors. All notebooks between 13.3-15.6 start between $699 to $899. They include the Gateway EC series, a 13.3 inch thin-and-light, and the Gateway NV series, which will be available with 14-, 15.6-, and 17.3-inch screens. The Acer Aspire Timeline series will offer 8 to 10 hours of battery life in 13.3, 14, and 15.6-inch form factors. The Timelines will start between $699 and $899 and will feature Intel ULV processors, discrete graphics, optional solid state drives, cool termperatures. You can see it in action in our hands-on video. Finally, Acer announced a nettop, the  1-liter. This compact, low-cost all-in-one combines Intel Atom and Nvidia Ion for processing and graphics power, respectively. We’ll provide more information on pricing and specs as we learn them. Technological Announcements The event included some important technological announcements as well. In addition to complying with Energy Star’s latest requirements, Acer’s PowerSmart Adapter will save 1.75 watts per year by cutting off power to fully charged notebooks. The company also announced an intention to invest in SSDs, on account of their speed, performance, and durability. Finally, Acer committed to a 16:9 aspect ratio across its notebook line. The Future of Netbooks Gianfranco Lanci, President and CEO of Acer Inc., kicked off the event with a presentation that more than hinted at the importance of netbooks in the PC market. According to him, the feature people care most about is battery life, followed by portability. Indeed, he reported that notebook growth is still in the double digits, and is driven by netbooks. As for Stephen Baker’s claim that the cannibalization rate for notebooks is 50 percent, Lanci’s estimate is a bit more modest. He says that number is only 5 to 10 percent, and, moreover, that netbooks are expanding the market, and not actually cannibalizing it.