It is the dawning of the age of cloudquarius. Acer, in addition to a set of ultrabooks, just announced something it’s calling AcerCloud. This service, like iCloud, brings all of your content onto all of your devices, allowing you to “create, acquire and consume on different devices.”

via AcerCloud Is Acer’s Answer To The Media Cloud | TechCrunch.

Well then, I knew this moment would come.

I’ve been running Mobile Industry Review for almost 5 years now and I’ve never had a problem with review units — up until now.

For those who are unaware, here’s how the process works. If you’re known by the handset PR team, they’ll usually drop you an email to see if you’d like to test one. Sometimes they’ll actually email to ask what your address is and they’ll simply post it to you. In some cases, with companies I deal with regularly, phones just arrive. Other times, I see a press release and I email the chap or lady and ask if I can do a review.

Generally speaking unless there’s ridiculously high demand, a handset arrives a few days later.

Some agencies get an allocation of 5 units (or something silly like that) and you end up getting the handset for 20 minutes before you have to stick it back in an envelope and send it back.

Most agencies have an account with UPS, DHL or the like — or a private courier firm — and they’ll send the devices to you that way. Some of the more enterprising agencies (like Sony Ericsson’s one) will actually enclose a padded return envelope already addressed. Genius. Other times you need to arrange with the agency for their courier to come and pick up the phone.

It’s all straight forward, usually.

The exceptions mostly come from us — that is, the publications — or, in this case, me. One agency thought I’d gone rogue on them when I failed to reply to emails during the time of Archie’s birth a little while ago. I understand that it must be a bit of an arse when you need the equipment back and you’re trying to get in touch with a stressed-to-hell editor.

Some agencies insist you sign a loan form. That form — or contract — means that you are responsible for the hardware and should you lose it, it’s your problem to replace it. This goes with the territory. The underlying concept with all device loans/reviews is dont-take-the-mickey.

I’ve never had to cough up for a phone that I’ve lost or damaged before. It’s just never been an issue.

Until now.

I made the ridiculous mistake of returning the Acer Liquid I had for review but not paying attention. The PR chap was emailing wanting it back — and he’d emailed a few times before I managed to take the time to get the device, stick it back nicely in it’s box (wipe all my data from it), find a padded envelope, address it, then post it. The good news, nowadays, is that the office reception ladies do the posting. They have a little special delivery label kit for Parcel Force and they take care of it. I wanted to send the device special delivery, because, you know… just in case.

And that’s it. That’s my involvement finished. Handed it to the ladies, the postman comes at 4.30pm and picks the stuff up. Done.

Unfortunately not.

Perhaps 2 months have passed. And now I’ve had a series of emails demanding the phone back.

“I’m sure I sent it back,” I thought.

I checked the office. No sign of the phone.

“I’m sure they posted it already!” I thought.

They did. I’m sure of it.

My problem, however, is that I haven’t had time to go and sit with the ladies at reception and flick through the special delivery book looking for the entry for the Acer. Needle, haystack.

The PR chap doesn’t have it.

So it’s my problem.

I didn’t keep a note of the Special Delivery details. I just can’t be arsed with that. Theoretically, if I spend 30 minutes messing around with the reception delivery book, I can probably locate the entry.

But I thought I’d see how Acer respond to this issue. I thought it might make an interesting post, too.

I’m willing to bet that if this happened with Nokia, it wouldn’t be an problem. Indeed, it doesn’t happen with Nokia. Because *they* send a courier to pick it up. It doesn’t happen with a lot of companies, actually, the more I think about it, because they deal with it all. My mistake for getting involved.

“Shall I buy an Acer Liquid and send it to you?” I asked the PR guy.

“Yes, please send it to Westcoast Asset Management Ltd,” he replied.

Heh. Who is that? I had a look, turns out that West Coast Asset Management handle consumer electronics returns!

I’m sure that’s where I sent the first Acer! They didn’t do a good job with me, did they?

Oooohkay.

Anyway, to the point of this post. Do you have an Acer Liquid — in fairly good condition — that I can buy from you and send to the chap at Westcoast Asset Management?

It’s pointless, I know. But it’s the right thing to do. That or go and search the special delivery book, find the entry and make it Acer’s problem.

If you do have an Acer Liquid, tell me how much you’d like for it. I’m ewan@mobileindustryreview.com.

I’ve been checking out the Acer Liquid Android handset — Acer’s first Android device. I’ve been looking forward to actually getting hands-on with the device because I’m excited to see what manufacturers make of the platform. Initial impressions are good. I like what they’ve done with the device.

Just to be clear, the Liquid is a mid-market handset. A few months after launch and you can pick one up for a fairly reasonable £280 sim-free if you shop around. Carphone Warehouse will, for example, give you a Liquid free on a £25/month T-Mobile contract (24 months).

So with the target market in mind, I won’t be comparing it to the likes of the Nexus One. It’s a workhorse handset that I think will be appreciated by anyone who’s been stuck on a feature phone for the last five years. The fact that you’ve got all Google’s glorious services accessible by a touch of the button is nothing short of wonderful — compared to the laborious click-click-click send-receive nonsense of yesteryear’s feature phones.

Google’s Android really does let the manufacturer sit back and relax. Oh, Acer have done their own set of customisations as Android manufacturers are wont to do — but they’ve not gone overboard. I don’t think they need to. Instead, Google steps in. Setting up the device is a total doddle, especially if you’ve already got a Google account. It’s nothing short of miraculous. And from then on, the basic stuff just works. That’s the magnificence of Android.

There are problems with Android. Significant problems — but from the end consumer viewpoint, the fact you can get your email, IM and related services (Google Maps, for example) easily and without friction will be good news. Acer have turned out a decent device. I’d be quite delighted to put this into the hands of my wife, my brother, my mother — although perhaps the Android UI isn’t quite ready for her (she’s very comfortable using the iPhone).

But for any feature phone refugee, the Acer will be a revelation. Reasonable price, good features, capable 5 megapixel camera and all the services we’ve come to expect with any Android device (e.g. integrated GPS, speakerphone, expandable SD card, WiFi, Quad band, HSDPA). I like that things such as this come as standard. You don’t have to think.

The phone is only 135g in weight. Of course, that’s because it’s encased in plastic which — well — it’s not got the Nexus One metal sheen. But it’s also not got the Nexus price tag either.

I’m going to do a a video of the phone shortly and I’ll be using over the next week or so and let you know how I get on with it.

Here’s a little series of photos I took of the box and phone with the Photo Booth Classic Plus iPhone app earlier:

(iTunes link for the app)

Netbooks were very much in evidence – being supplied free with the various subscription 3G data packages.  In addition to the existing range including some Eee models from Asus, an Acer Aspire One and an Advent 4211 a new model from Fujitsu was on show.  Spec wise there was little separate it from the pack but styling and finish were impressive… Everyone agreed there would be a ‘bloodbath’ in this sector in the next few months with Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba all also due to announce products.

The Samsung stand was one of the best with the Omnia – a Windows Mobile 6.1 iPhone-a-like (that’s mine on the right of it for comparison) – launching today and the very impressive i8510 – one of Samsung’s first Symbian handsets – also on show.  The i8510 give Nokia’s best a run for their money – expect to hear more on this… my wallet is itching!  I’ve already got Ewan excited see here.

Next up was Nokia announcing an exclusive (until Christmas) white 5310 handset via CPW for the launch of their ‘Comes with Music‘ offering which is first to launch in the UK.  This gives a code for unlimited downloads from the Nokia music store which is very cool.  Even better is the fact you can keep the tracks after your year-long free subscription expires, but some of the answers about transfers to upgraded handsets and renewing subscriptions were worryingly vague – Nokia best have some good answers before those years start expiring!  Also on show were a number of the newer handsets including the N96 which, in my opinion, is looking lamer and lamer everyday as a flagship model (sorry Nokia).

Next up were our new best friends at SonyEricsson (the same chap in fact) who had his X1 out again and couldn’t answer any of the hard questions about when it would actually be released.  He did say some nice things about the show though so there is some hope for them

The new Jawbone headset we reviewed a few months back is now available in gun-metal grey and gold…. Meh.

Motorola had their Z10 out which impresses with its unusual form factor and video playback if nothing else, but also had their ‘budget smartphone’, the A810 on display – at around £90 on PAYG this is a Linux-based mini-tablet intended for people who want smartphone features at a lower cost… The interface and screen size are all much poorer than the best smartphones available, but at this cost I think they may have a good compromise.  Also impressive was the ZN5 – a 5 megapixel cameraphone with Kodak branding and xenon flash (something that helps Nokia’s N82 shoot such great pictures).  This has a WiFi photoframe accessory that is set to automatically show pictures the phone uploads to Kodak’s online photo site (via a Shozu-like feature) and multiple frames can be added.

LG were also present but apart from a nice table setting didn’t have much new to announce.  Disappointingly the PR there didn’t know about the LG blog so I gave up and moved on.  Nice table though…

Meanwhile, Barrons reports Nomura analyst Richard Windsor believes Dell is coming out with a 10 digit Qwerty keypad device next year.

Dell has already got out of the PDA business once – is it really going to re-enter the market again? It would certainly be very well positioned to do so and it’s brand would probably open a lot of doors with business users. Dell has still remained very reserved on the subject though: it’s not looking like a dead cert, but the evidence looks to be building.