Acer appears to be the latest company to announce a new UMPC, according to ZDNet. While very few details are known about their new UMPC, which will be available later this year, what we do know is that it will have a 7 or 9 inch screen and a price tag of about $470. In other words, it is meant to directly compete with the Eee PC. Although what operating system it will run is not known, Linux seems likely, since XP will be almost gone by the time it is available and, considering the price tag, putting Vista on it looks difficult.

Another thing that is interesting to note is that Acer previously said they would not get into this market, but after seeing the success of Asus, they changed their minds. To me, this says that this inexpensive laptop-like UMPC market will continue to expand or else Acer would not bother to get into the market at all.

As this market is expanding, all the competitors so far run Linux. (Note: I am not talking about UMPCs, but rather about inexpensive laptop-like UMPCs.) It will be very interesting to see if and when a product is announced that will fit this category and run Windows. When a good Windows product in this market comes out, do you think everyone will flock to it or will they keep buying the Linux ones? My guess is that unless Microsoft practically gives away Windows and Office, people will largely stick to Linux.