Yikes, looks like Acer’s recently-released 11.6-inch Aspire One A0751h netbook might either be on its way out or headed for the bargain bin already.
You’ll recall that the machine was made available on May 18th, then pulled from shelves for about a week due to a labelling mix-up, and now DigiTimes is reporting that Acer’s planning an 11.6-inch machine in its Timeline series that’ll either replace the A0751h or bring about a price drop “to establish a clear boundary between the two product lines.”
Sales of the A0751h haven’t been all that stellar. I’d assume that’s in large part due to the fact that the nice HD-resolution screen can’t actually play HD videos smoothly thanks to the underwhelming 1.2 GHz Atom Z520 CPU. The Timeline version would likely contain one of Intel’s newer CULV (consumer ultra low voltage) CPUs and perhaps a more potent GPU than the Intel GMA 950 found in the current 11.6-inch offering.
That’s bad news for people who had been looking forward to (or have already purchased) the A0751h but give credit to Acer for going quickly back to the drawing board in order to get a suitable replacement to market. Fail quickly, as they say.
UPDATE: Looks like Acer won’t be replacing the A0751h with the Timeline version, although the company’s PR rep didn’t come right out and say it directly. Here’s what she sent:
“The Aspire one is a lightweight, mobile internet device, ideal for taking advantage of online applications such as email, social networking, listening to online music, making online VoIP calls and web surfing. The Timeline Series is a notebook PC that offers enough power for not only online applications but also movies and productivity applications, such as spreadsheets, Word documents and presentations. It also offers 8 plus hours of battery life with a standard battery configuration.
The 11.6-inch Aspire one is available at Walmart now. It will also be sold at Amazon, Target.com, Shopko and Office Max on June 14, Radio Shack on June 15, J&R and PC Richard on June 21 and Staples on June 28.”
Looks like two separate and distinct offerings then — not a replacement or possible “phasing out” as the source article from DigiTimes mentioned.
HI THERE I HOPE SOO BECUASE IT USES A SLOW SPINGING UNRLIABLE HARD DRIVE I WANT TOO SEE A VERY FAST SSD SOLID STATE FLASH DRIVE INSTEAD WILL ANY BODEY REALY EVERE PRODUCE MASSPRODUTION OF A SSD COMPUTERS AND GAMING CONSOLES WITH VERTALY ZERO LAG TIME AND VERTALY NO DELAY IN GAME LOAD TIMES I CAN BUY A MACBOOK AIR FROM APPLE WITH 8 HOURS OF BATTERY LIFE AND GET A 128 GB SSD OR A 13 INCH MACBOOK PRO WITH 8 GB OF RAM AND 256 GB SSD
The laptop has had some minor upgrade and should now be available at most walmarts. The above comment is not really valid at for this type of machine. A good SSD is likely several versions if ever away and comparing this $400 netbook to an mac book air.. is really no comparison at all, the mackbook air is a full featured notebook and cost nearly 2x as much. After making the purchase I did find that removing Mcafee which is already installed inproved the performance dramatically. I went from 80%-100% load on the machine at idol down to 10% after removing mcaffe. Good luck and enjoy this machine!
thanks for the reveiw and infromation on this acer netbook.
I have one of these…bought it at the Future shop about a month ago. $228cdn or about $205US.
Great little cheap laptop for a road worrier who wants to check email, do VOiP phoning with skype or some online system configuring while on the road… and I’ve done some neat long distance networking tricks with this thing… that more than covers most people.
Here’s the skinny… it’s a pretty stripped down computer that will work great for the AVERAGE email checker and surfer. With the crapware gone, 2 gigs of ram… Macafee and the pay to play games uninstalled, it speeds up nicely.
Why isn’t it in the stores… its all about marketing, and up-selling…. especially during the holiday season. The retailers have suddenly found that they could flog a higher end 11.6in for a whole lot more money (and profit) so they’ve pulled the cheaper low end products like the Acer 751h. It was just too cheap and was killing the netbook market …especially now that it’s Christmas, so they’ve pulled it for the Christmas season in favor of the more expensive products.
It was on the shelves for less than a week and then suddenly disappeared. It’s closest replacement is $150 more.
…go figure.