Trailing the walkway of companies like Toshiba, Taiwan-based manufacturer of computers, Acer Inc. too has joined the numerous others, as it announced its foray in the swarming mobile phone business with its own line of smartphones at the Global Congress Mobile fair in Barcelona.

“The smartphone market is a natural direction of our long-term mobile strategy,” said chief executive Gianfranco Lanci during a press conference at Mobile World Congress

The move marks the projection of the company’s intention suggested earlier last year after it took over Taiwanese handset manufacturer E-Ten.

Acer marked its entry with the unveiling of eight new smartphones, all capable of internet and powerful processing backed upscale memory.

The first four handsets; DX900, X960, M900 and F900 are touch screen phones with a design that has striking resemblance to Apple iPhone, and can connect to the Internet via a Wi-Fi connection and run with the Windows mobile operating system.

These smartphones are scheduled to hit the market worldwide in March or April this year.

This venture is expected to contribute for about 10 percent of the company’s revenue by 2012, as sophisticated mobile phones are seen to be increasingly substituting portable PCs.