Taipei-based Acer, now the world’s second largest supplier of notebook computers, has confirmed it will join rival Asus and start selling Google Android based netbooks.

Speaking at the Computex PC trade show in Taipei, Jim Wong of Acer said yesterday that a netbook based on Google’s open source operating systems would likely go on sale in the third quarter.

A version of the Aspire One netbook was demoed at Computex running a dual-boot system that could be switched between Android and Windows XP. 

It is understood the one that will be launched later in the year will run Android, and ‘another open source operating system.’

Nothing has been said about price, other than the Android-based netbook would be cheaper that any of the current options running Microsoft operating systems.

Taiwan-based HTC is also rumoured to be readying a market launch of an Android netbook.