What Acer gets from buying E-ten

SO ACER gets into the smartphone market by snapping up E-Ten and its Glofiish (yes, double 'i') phone brand.

Analysts are singing the happy song and saying all's well. But how will the "new smartphone brand " fare against the existing competition?

HTC, with its Dopod phones, is not technically any better than the Glofiishes, as far as we could deduce looking at the best of both lines. In fact, the latest E-ten offerings seem to have more of a touch of elegance.

However, the Dopod brand has quite a headstart, especially with the telecom vendors. These, rather than typical IT channels, are the make-or-break conduits for the phone brand adoption - most users get their phones, smart or not, " subsidised" by the subscription plans that'll rip them off over the next few years, but they don't cough up much dosh up front.

HTC's Dopod has mastered this game already. The Glofiish has just started its swim through those treacherous telecom currents.

Then we got Asus, a biggie comparable in size to Acer, and perceived to be more technologically robust - compare Acer and Asus notebooks, for instance. Asus drives its brand forward like mad, looking towards global adoption. Asus has an existing smartphone line, well marketed and present in among a growing number of telco partner offerings.

The battle looks tough - however, Acer Glofiishes could still swim their way to the distant global shores. E-ten seemingly has a capable team - both the management and technical side. Rather than cutting corners the moment the acquisition is done, as it often happens in this industry, Acer should pour in a bit more cash to strengthen both the marketing, sales and technical teams here.

Being a part of a biggie then, the users will expect more now - greater variety of models with increased "uniqueness", more software bundles, more event presence and so on. Even bundling the smartphones with their high-end laptops as phone cum 3.5G modems, especially when on the users' company budget for that user to personally keep, will be something that, for instance, HTC can not easily do.

Does it stand a chance in a direct fight against Nokia, Samsung or LG? Not yet - no Taiwan smartphone vendor does right now. But, they are all getting there - both technology and business-wise. Let's look forward to an exciting ever-cheaper smartphone year then. µ