Acer is expanding its line to include budget ultraportable computers, Acer president J.T. Wang said today. The company chief refrained from providing details but stated that multiple devices would be released to tackle both price and size throughout the spring and summer of this year. However, previous leaks have pointed to likely direct challengers to ASUS' popular Eee PC line. Both 8- and 9-inch systems are expected with the same 800x480 resolution as the ASUS system, though whether these are the only products or are still in place for the mid-year launch is unclear.

Some of the motivation behind the devices is likely to stem from Acer's desire to expand further into Japan, where ultra-compact PCs are more common, but also to offer its own alternative in the increasingly crowded field. In addition to ASUS, Acer now has to compete against the Everex CloudBook as well as more immediate competition from its home region of Taiwan, such as upcoming systems from GigaByte and MSI. Most of these are believed to use Intel's "Diamondville" 1.6GHz ultra-mobile processor, which should be formally introduced in April.