Acer: Android not suitable for netbooks

With Linux struggling to compete against Windows in the netbook arena, Google's Android doesn't look like it could turn the tide – at least, according to Acer.

As reported over on Maximum PC yesterday, the PC manufacturer – which is responsible for a not-inconsiderable 38.3 percent of the netbook market – has dismissed rumours that it would be looking to implement Google's open-source Linux-based Android platform on its netbook ranges.

In a statement to the press earlier in the week, Acer's head of IT Products Jim Wong said that “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.” This position was echoed by chief executive officer Gianfranco Lanci, although admitted the company was still testing Android on netbooks to see if the platform can't be modified in such a way as to make it more plausible a solution. For now, however, it's Windows all the way on the netbook front.

Despite the knockback in the netbook market, the company is still forging ahead with a smartphone based around Google's open-source platform – claiming that Android is better suited to communication than computing. With the only official products currently running the Android platform being smartphones, it seems the market agrees – although both Hewlett-Packard and Asus claim to be working on an Android variant for their respective netbook ranges.

Assuming that Android can make the leap from 'phone platform to computing platform, it'll have an uphill struggle: with Microsoft's Windows currently accounting for a whopping 96 percent of all netbook sales and Linux-based units being dropped by many retailers, the public is near-unanimously voting for the safe and familiar.

Do you believe that Android could be a good fit for a simple netbook device, or is the platform too specialised for communications tasks to ever work out on netbook? Share your thoughts over in the forums.