Acer is to join Toshiba next month and offer a high-end notebook with an integrated HD DVD drive. So claims Chinese-language newspaper the Commercial Times today, according to a DigiTimes report.

Alas there are no other details: will the machine be offered in the US, Europe or both, for example? But it doesn't come entirely as a surprise. For starters, Acer is pushing hard to become better known for its notebooks than Toshiba is - in Q4 2005, for example, it nudged past its rival to become the third best-shipping global notebook brand, according to preliminary figures from market watcher Gartner Dataquest.

Acer is also an Associate Member of the HD DVD Promotion Group, so it's clearly interested in supporting the next-generation optical disc format. ®