Acer's Android phone faces surprise shortage
updated 12:05 pm EST, Sat February 6, 2010
Acer Liquid in relatively strong demand
Acer late Friday said that its Liquid Android smartphone has been a surprise success. CEO Gianfranco Lanci warned of shortages as the device has been faring "much better than our expectation" and that shipments during the winter should be much higher than expected. Where it had initially predicted 150,000 to 200,000 Liquids shipping by the end of March, Acer now expects to make "at least" 250,000 of the handsets.
Lanci didn't speculate as to what might have driven sales, although the combination of the touch-friendly Android OS along with a quick Snapdragon processor are strong contenders.
The success could lead to the Liquid becoming one of Acer's most popular phones for the entire year. The company expects to ship 2 million to 3 million smartphones this year. Some of those should be Windows Mobile devices, but the Liquid alone could represent a third or more of all those units if its sales remain constant or improve.
A more recent rumor claims that Acer has quietly scheduled a primarily Android-based lineup as the unpopularity of Windows Mobile has led it to downplay Microsoft's OS until at least the arrival of Windows Phone 7, near the end of 2010.
