Vodacom, South Africa’s 1st cellular network, quietly launched a range of 7 and 10 inch screen tablets to be used with the mobile operator’s contract and pre-paid plans.
The Vodacom Smart Tab 7 and 10 have already launched in the UK, France, Germany and Romania. In Africa, the company operates in Tanzania, Lesotho, Congo and Mozambique where it is yet to release the devices. The tablets which spot common hardware will be running on Android Honeycomb 3.2. The 7 inch smart-tab will retail at a cash rate of $482 and a $25 per month rate for 500 megabyte plan. The 10 inch tablet will go for $600 pre-paid and $32 per month on contract in participating outlets. Those looking for camera support on the device have a 5mp and 2mp camera installed on the back and front for video calls respectively. Both of their displays have a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution.
The tablets have HD or HD ready TV support and are pre-loaded with apps such as QuickOffice Pro, Twitter and Dropbox.Browsing power on the tablets is enhanced with 3G and inbuilt Wi-Fi. The Smart Tabs have a Snapdargon S3-1.2GHz dual-core processor and 16 GB of internal storage to support heavy downloads and storage of media files (photos, videos, music). The launch of the tabs was preceded by the release of a cheap Ubuntu Webbook by the mobile operator late last year in South Africa. All in all, Africa seems to be experiencing a boom in the tablet ecosystem. Just a week ago, we saw a new African tablet, Way-C, launched in Congo.
