Acer To Launch Google Android Based Netbooks

Acer announced today that their next round of netbook computers will come with Google's Android operating system rather than Windows if that's what the buyer desires. This move by Acer could give Google a large market share with its new Android operating system.

By providing consumers with the "choice" to choose the Google Android OS, the consumer will instantly save the licensing costs associated with Windows. This is because Google's Android operating system is freely distributed and open-source. Bringing down the costs of netbooks by saving on license costs can only help the netbook gain market share.

We know that Microsoft's next operating system, Windows 7 has a license geared towards netbooks but we don't know of how the costs will compare to the licensing they currently have established with netbook manufactures for the Windows XP operating system. It could be that the Windows 7 will cost even more, which isn't really out of the ordinary from Microsoft.

Like with any other non-Windows operating system, users will have to re-learn how to operating the computer. Just like how Linux is new to many people, Android is even more so and along with the newness comes the uncertainty for new computer users. I don't suspect that the Android Netbook market to be as large as the Windows Netbook market, I think it's a great alternative and very welcomed by the open source community.