Acer, the Taiwanese netbook manufacturing company has decided to step into the smartphone market.  They announced this at Mobile World Congress and unveiled about 8 new handsets.  “The smartphone market is a natural direction of our long-term mobile strategy,” stated Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci.

The first four handsets will be available in March or APril.  The first Acer models will be the DX900, X960, M900 and F900.  These phones will be part of Acer’s Tempo line of phones and will feature touch-screen capabilities.  Last year, Acer acquired E-Ten, a phone manufacturing company.