Acer to bundle cloud storage with new PCs

Stuart Corner
Monday, 09 January 2012 16:49

Acer has unveiled a cloud service that will ship on all new Acer PCs, enabling users to share content with other PCs, Android and (later) Windows) phones and to back it up temporarily in the cloud.

The service will initially have three components: PicStream, AcerCloud Docs and clear.fi Media. PicStream will enable users to take photos with their smartphone, back them up on the main PC, and share them via the clear.fi Media application, which enables user to download or stream documents from their personal AcerCloud to any supported device.

AcerCloud provides temporary (30 day) cloud storage for user documents and enables them to be streamed or downloaded to supported devices. Acer has not indicated what limit, if any, will apply to user storage of if additional capacity will be available for a fee.

AcerCloud will be bundled on all Acer consumer PCs starting Q2 2012. Acer says it will support all Android devices, and that support is planned for Windows-based devices.

A key feature of the service is the Acer Connect technology that will be included on all new Acer PCs. It will enable users to upload content to these PCS over WiFi even while the device is in sleep mode.

Acer's entry into the cloud services market follows its acquistion in July last year of US-based cloud technology company iGware for $US300m plus. Acer said at the time that the move was designed to enable it to establish its own cloud infrastructure.

"iGware's cloud software and infrastructure tools currently enable and support more than 100 million consumer devices worldwide including Nintendo's Wii, iDS and 3DS, and will support Wii U in the future'¦ After the merger, iGware's legal entity will become Acer Cloud Technology Company, with subsidiaries in Taiwan and China to be set up," Acer said.