The first Acer-branded smartphone will be launched in the first quarter of 2009, it has emerged.

The company has officially confirmed the launch date, according to a report by DigiTimes. Unfortunately, Acer hasn’t been kind enough to state which phone(s) will be shown off upon launch, or in which regions its handsets will initally emerge.

Launch of the firm’s first own-brand smartphone has been under the spotlight for some time, although talk of several other potential launch dates had caused confusion.

For example, the company’s Chairman, JT Wang, had previously speculated about a Q2 2009 launch. A Q1 2009 launch for Western Europe and Russia only had also been rumoured.

Acer has already launched a smartphone. It acquired smartphone firm E-Ten in March this year and then later released the Glofiish M810 and M750, albeit both with E-Ten branding.