Acer announced plans to launch a smartphone running Aliyun, the operating system developed by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. "We chose Aliyun for the new smartphone because of the user experience it can offer," said Dave Chan, general manager of Acer's global smartphone business group overseeing Chinese operations.
Aliyun is also easy for first-time users to navigate, he told the Wall Street Journal. Aliyun runs web-based apps that are stored on remote servers. The system also comes with its own mapping and e-mail applications. Alibaba spent about three years developing Aliyun, which the company unveiled in July 2011.
Acer's CloudMobile A800 smartphone will go on sale 14 September and be its highest-priced smartphone in China, selling for CNY 2,999 (USD 473). Acer said it would also release the same handset in other parts of the world, but the ones sold outside China will be powered by Android. People who purchase the new phone at Acer's online store on Alibaba's Tmall shopping website will be offered a special promotion deal, Acer said, without elaborating. Acer plans to release another Aliyun-based model next month, followed by a few more next year, Chan said.
