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Vodaphone's Webbox Is a Mediocre Web TV Device for the Third World

by Leila Brillson on February 16, 2011 at 03:40 PM

Vodaphone's Webbox
Internet TV means plenty of things in the U.S., and usually bears a strange sounding name, like Boxee, Roku or FyreTV. But in developing countries, where the Web hasn't made much headway but households are equipped with televisions, Web-enabled television could be an entirely new browser experience. Vodaphone in South Africa has just announced its Webbox (a name which reminds us of "flummox" or "buttocks"), a TV-connected keyboard that allows users access to the Web. Using a Vodaphone SIM card and what appears to be a customized Android skin, users just need to plug their Webbox into the TV, and an Opera browser pops right up. Simple, no? Check it out for yourself after the jump.

But even though this sort of plug-and-play 'Net is crucial to modernizing the third world, several things are troubling. Of course, since this is a Vodaphone product, the company clearly hopes the user will download as much data as possible and sign up for long-term contracts -- which are in the works. While the box top comes pre-loaded with apps and compresses data by 90-percent (making it a more affordable browsing situation), it isn't exactly cheap at 749 Rand (around $102, about the cost of a Roku). Granted, a Roku doesn't come with a full QWERTY keyboard or its own cellular capabilities, but the system presupposes that a household can afford data fees, owns a television and has access to 2G/EDGE networks. Those, for a nation with infrastructural problems, are a lot of assumptions.

Tags: developing world, DevelopingWorld, internet, roku, south africa, SouthAfrica, streaming, top, vodaphone, web, web TV, webbox, WebTv

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