3G networks are still being rolled out, but that hasn’t prevented adventurous companies from launching set-to-boxes that will convert the TV into a networked computer.
First off in what promises to be a series of launches was the education major Educomp and its hardware partner Zeebo and software partner Lakhsya Digital. However, unlike plain vanilla TV Internet boxes, the Zeebo will be primarily targeted at children and will have exclusive content from India’s biggest e-education provider, Educomp.
“We have had a lot of success in markets like Brazil and Mexico.. and we thought now is the right to announce our plans for India,” said John Rizzo, president and CEO of California-based Zeebo Inc which claims to have sold tens of thousands of such boxes globally.
Like others, the company is trying to take advantage of India’s unique predicament of having only around 3% of its households owning a PC while nearly all of them will soon be covered by high-speed Internet. With PCs still a costly affair for most Indians, many believe that more Indians are likely to access the Internet using $100 (Rs4,600) set-top-boxes, connected to their TVs which will act as the monitor. “Nearly all Indian households already have a TV,” Rizzo pointed out.
Like other prototypes in the making, the Zeebo box will have a keyboard and a game-controller which will also double up as a mouse. The device currently costs around $150, but Rizzo said he expects it to fall to $100 by the actual launch (at the end of 2011) as the firm has now started targeting the Chinese market as well.
India’s mobile operators, including Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries are expected to target the ‘Internet box’ market. While most are betting on services such as watching the latest bollywood hits using the service, Zeebo has decided to focus on education and children’s entertainment as the driver. User, however, will still be able to browse the Internet and use the device as an email centre.
Educomp CEO Santanu Prakash said the extensive multimedia educational content built up by his company will be a key differentiator for the service. “Getting good content will be a challenge,” he said, when asked about similar plans by companies such as DTH operators and even the government of India.
The Zeebo will have modest on-board memory with a built in flash-drive and a 3G SIM card already installed. The user will have to pay a “few hundred rupees” every month as subscription fee. The device, which runs on a Qualcomm 600 MHz chip and Adreno graphics processor, may also be modified to support features such as video-calling, voice calling and high-definition video playback. “We have left out many features right now to keep the costs down,” Rizzo said. The three partners have committed an investment of $4 million (Rs18.5 crore) to the project.
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