Tags: Consumer Electronics, Internet, Telecommunications
By Alexander Villafania
MAKATI CITY, METRO MANILA — With only 24 million Filipinos domestically having access to the Internet, as stated by research firm Nielsen, Internet penetration still remains small despite improvements in telecommunications infrastructure and availability of devices.
One of the main factors for the low penetration is cost. Most Internet-ready computers are still above the P15,000 price range. Even the much-vaunted Nettop ng Bayan project by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and Intel Philippines has yet to gain significant ground among consumers even with a significantly low price range of only P10,000.
Recently, mobile telecommunications firm Smart Communications introduced a device that aims to turn a TV into a computer. Called the SurfTV, the device is about the size of a Wifi router and has a single standard RCA connector that plugs into the back of a TV, which essentially becomes a monitor. For only P4,500 per setup, Smart also throws in a mouse and keyboard, a wireless remote and a SmartBro stick that is plugged into the USB port of the SurfTV. The cost of accessing the Internet on SurfTV is the same as regular SmartBro charges, which is P10 per 30 minutes.
The idea of SurfTV isn’t new. In fact, computer enthusiasts with some knowledge of available PC peripherals can turn an ordinary TV into a monitor. Usually a PC’s graphics card with an RCA or S-Video connector can be used to plug into a TV. However, these require space and would cost a lot, plus the fact that a TV’s resolution is lower and does not render well images from a high definition source.
A thin client (a small, stand alone device) became a better proposition to turn a TV into a PC. In the mid-1990s Microsoft bought a company called WebTV and incorporated it into its MSN TV project. The output is one of the earliest forms of a device that turns a TV into a PC. Like Smart’s SurfTV, it had a mouse and keyboard and a remote. It has since been upgraded into MSN TV 2.
Not surprisingly, game consoles such as the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 also have similar Internet capabilities that turn ordinary TVs into web and multimedia PCs. Both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 have keyboard and remote control peripherals. However, connection to their respective networks still incur charges.
Still, Smart’s new venture into a basic Internet-ready thin client could provide Filipinos with readily-available and cheap access to the Internet. With 3.7 million television sets in the Philippines there’s a lot of potential for a device like this in a country where people want to enjoy the Internet without the technical hitches and preventive costs.
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yep this is a very good idea from smart. i really hope this takes off. ecommerce would improve here in the philippines if there are more people who could access the internet.