Acer plans to ship 6 to 6.5 million low-cost notebooks in the second half of 2008 alone.

The company will introduce an 8.9-inch Aspire, as well as a 12.1-inch Aspire Slim Gemstone version. Last month it ordered a million low-end 12.1-inch screens from AU Optoelectronics and it seems to be taking the Eee quite seriously.

Unlike Asus's Eee, Acer's machines will be powered by Intel's Atom processors and they will feature an HDD option, too. They are expected to appear in May-June and you should probably expect loads of similar machines come Computex.

With many companies poised to steal a part of the market from Asus' Eee, this summer promises to be a hot one.

More here.