Acer announces $400 Haswell-powered AIO machine – running Android

It might look a little like Windows 8, but that’s Android

The blurring of the line between PCs and tablets looks set to be accelerated after Acer announced an All-In-One (AIO) PC powered by a  3GHz Core i5 Haswell processor, but running Android instead of Windows.

Choosing Android over Windows reduces costs not just by saving the licence fee to Microsoft but also by allowing significantly lower specs: the machine will come with just 1Gb RAM, for example … 

Acer was reportedly upset by Microsoft’s decision to manufacture its own hardware for Windows RT, but limited interest in the cut-down version of Windows 8 will probably have been the key factor in Acer’s decision.

The machine is unlikely to be suited to heavy-lifting tasks like video editing, but AIO machines are typically bought by consumers with relatively undemanding requirements, mostly using them for net access.

Acer is not the first to go down the Android path with an AIO PC – there have been other examples in China – but this pushes the concept very much into the mainstream. We fully expect other manufacturers to follow Acer’s example, so watch this space …