Acer is planning an overhaul of its strategy as far as the netbooks market is concerned. It is planning to bring out new sub 1” thickness (at the thinnest point) Intel Calpella platform based netbooks this summer. Codenamed Calpella Slim series, they are expected to have 13”, 14” and 15” size screens. Wistron will make the 13” models while Quanta Computers will manufacture the other two.
The ultra thin notebooks using the Intel’s CULV processor from Acer have had lukewarm response so far from the market. They have been perceived to be poor performers by users. These new Calpella based systems will boost performance while at the same time remaining highly portable. They are expected to be priced higher than the current netbooks while the latter will undergo a downward price revision.
According to Acer’s chairman JT Wang, about 30 to 40% of Acer’s notebook revenue this year is expected to come from netbooks. The new models are expected to cross 10 million units in shipments in 2010, boosting notebooks shipments by around 30% a month.
