If you could cut your boot times by a quarter and extend your UMPC’s battery life by 40% would you switch from Windows to another OS? Acer is betting so, according to this article on vnunet.com.
Here’s the problem as I see it: Will developers embrace these machines, let’s say like they have the iPhone? If not, Acer is going to have a tough time no matter what the OS.
This is the challenge for Acer, Intel, Microsoft and the others. Now possibly the developers will follow the users if large numbers of people adopt these systems, but I bet you’ll have to capture the imagination of the developers from the get go. So far that hasn’t happened in large enough numbers.
Now if Acer truly is going to keep the price low–and I mean really low–then maybe they will attract a slew of Linux developers and advocates. However, there are many developers like me that want more. I don’t mean in terms of cost, but rather in terms of compelling features. There’s got to be some unique communication capabilities or multi-touch or GPS or something.