Acer Debuts New Dual Android, Windows XP Netbook

Acer’s latest crack at combining Google’s Android mobile software and Microsoft’s Windows XP OS in the same netbook was unveiled at a computer show in Taipei on Thursday.Slideshow: 16 Breakthrough Notebooks: A Look Back

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The Acer Aspire One AOD255 netbook uses Android as a quick-booting operating system and then Windows as the main operating system. Acer software on the device, called Acer Configuration Manager for Android, controls which OS will boot.

The netbook sports a 10.1-inch screen and has Intel’s Atom N450 microprocessor inside. It carries 1GB of DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM as well as a 160GB hard disk drive (HDD) for storage. The device comes with a 3-cell lithium-ion battery, but Acer also sells a 6-cell battery for an additional NT$3,000 (US$95), a salesman said.

The device is being sold at the computer exhibition for NT$9,500, around US$300, but this is a special price for computer show attendees only. The list price on information handed out at the show is NT$11,900, around US$375.

People attending the Taipei Computer Applications Show, which runs through the weekend, will be able to order the device on Thursday and pick it up Friday. A salesman at the booth did not know when the device will be formally launched on world markets.