MTN announced a new low-cost tablet and an update to its Steppa smartphone on Wednesday morning. It hopes the new offerings will entice first time smartphone and tablet users, and those on a shoestring budget.
“Access to e-mail, search functionality, online banking and all other benefits of mobile computing meet in the Steppa Tablet,” says MTN GM for products, services and innovation Mike Fairon.
MTN’s Steppa Tablet comes a month after Vodacom launched its own low-cost tablet. Both retail for under R1 000, but MTN’s is a slightly better performer on paper.
The Steppa Tablet features a 7-inch, 1 024×600-pixel screen, the Android 4.4 (KitKat) operating system and 3 500mAh battery.
It has a 1,2GHz quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. The tablet’s memory can be expanded by way of a microSD card slot.
Fairon says the Steppa Tablet is for consumers who want Internet and e-mail access, but who cannot afford a full-featured PC or notebook.
The Steppa Tablet is based on a Qualcomm reference design. “Qualcomm’s QRD programme enabled MTN to bring the Steppa tablet to consumers faster, with more features, at a lower cost,” says Fairon.
MTN also announced the Steppa 2, an update to its low-cost smartphone, which was launched at the beginning of the year.
The Steppa 2 has a 4-inch screen with a resolution of 480×800 pixels and features a 1,2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.
It has 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage — this can be expanded by way of a microSD card. There is also a 5-megapixel camera and a 1 500mAh battery.
MTN has not announced the price for the Steppa 2, but says it will be more expensive than the original Steppa smartphone due to the higher specification of the hardware. It will be available by the end of November and will come with a 200MB/month data bundle for 12 months.
The Steppa Tablet will also be available from the end of November, for R999 on MTN’s prepaid price plans. — © NewsCentral Media
