Acer has announced that it is joining the Blu-ray Association (BDA) and will install Blu-ray drives in its laptops from next year.

The decision to plump for the Blu-ray high-definition (HD) format after spending most of 2007 selling laptops equipped with rival HD DVD drives will come as a hard blow to the Toshiba-led HD DVD camp, which is currently losing the sales war in the US.

Acer has almost overtaken Dell as the second largest PC supplier in Europe and its recent $710 million buyout of Gateway will give it an instant presence in the US. Although it has not been confirmed, it is likely that some Gateway laptops will also sport Blu-ray drives next year. With Acer on board, the Blu-ray camp now has the four largest PC makers on its side, along with HP, Dell and Lenovo.

“With increasing demand and expectation for richer media content, Acer is adding Blu-ray Disc technology into our notebooks and enabling users to experience high-definition content, playback and storage,” said Campbell Kan, vice president, Mobile Computing Business Unit, Acer. “Acer is pleased to be joining the Blu-ray Disc Association and to continue empowering our users to benefit from the freshest technologies available.”

Victor Matsuda, chairman of the BDA's Global Promotions Committee commented: “We're delighted to welcome Acer to the Blu-ray Disc Association. The addition of Acer provides one more sign of the growing momentum behind Blu-ray Disc and, more importantly, is a significant advantage for consumers, as it further expands the already broad options available to consumers in the personal computer space.”