Google's open source Android operating system has been used as a smartphone operating system, and now the software will be used in Acer netbooks that are set to come out in the third quarter.

Jim Wong, head of the IT products division at the Taipei-based company, confirmed Acer's decision to use Android as its operating system. Acer was the first PC vendor to officially announce that it was making Android PCs, weeks after it said it planned to launch smartphones -- mobile phones packed with advanced computer-like capabilities -- on the same platform later this year.

Today's netbooks are not close to perfection at all. In two years, it will all be very different, Wong said at a news conference at Computex, the world's second-largest PC trade show held in Taipei.

If we do not continue to change our mobile Internet devices, consumers may not choose then any more.

The Aspire One netbooks Acer displayed at its news conference on Tuesday at Computex were running a dual-boot system allowing users to switch between Android and Windows XP.

Wong said the device that goes on sale later this year will only have Android and another Linux OS.

He did confirm the price of the new device but said it is likely to be less expensive than Aspire One with Windows XP.

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