At its first-quarter investor relations conference in Taipei on Wednesday, Acer President Gianfranco Lanci revealed that his company is set to release its first smartphone in the coming months, and seems determined this will be followed up by many more to the point of it representing as much as 10 percent of Acer's revenue in the next few years.
The company plans to focus on smartphones and sell the devices through wireless carriers instead of directly to retail. The announcement shouldn't come as much as a surprise given the company's $290 million agreement last month to purchase handheld device maker E-TEN. Whether Acer will be able to stir up the smartphone market much in the way it has with PCs lately remains to be seen.