Smart to offer Android-based Netphone starting Sept 10

MANILA, Philippines -  Smart Communications will start offering the Netphone on Sept. 10, a move that will allow the wireless leader to hike Internet access across a broader market segment.

Introduced in Barcelona, Spain last February at the 2011 GSMA Mobile World Congress, the Netphone is an Android-compliant smartphone designed by Smart with the most advanced Internet-capability specifications, coupled with unique and locally-developed applications – all offered at an attractive price point.

The Netphone 701 – the first of many in the Netphone product line – will retail at P9,900 for a prepaid kit and will come free with postpaid Plan 800.

Currently, only five million of about 80 million mobile subscribers nationwide are accessing the Internet through their mobile phones. Of the five million, 60 to 70 percent are within the Smart network.

“The Netphone will allow people without Internet-capable phones to upgrade easily and enjoy the benefits of the Internet in their hands now,” said Orlando Vea, chief wireless advisor and co-founder of Smart.

The Netphone is designed to provide users – including first-time smartphone owners – with full Internet experience in ‘bite-sized’ amounts, primarily through SmartNet.

Unlike any other Android device that allows users to simply run apps, SmartNet is what sets the Netphone apart. The suite of Smart-branded apps via SmartNet provides all users access to social networks and chatting – two of the most common activities on the Internet. SmartNet also allows Netphone users to find contacts online, send custom messages with special effects (FX messaging), among other things.

“We have integrated into SmartNet one-touch access to the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo! Messenger, enabling its users — while on SmartNet – to stay online and keep tabs on their social activities, for free. This allows our subscribers to enjoy their habit yet save their airtime load,” Smart broadband Internet and data services head Giovanni Bacareza said.

Moreover, Smart’s patented ‘Safe Browse’ feature on the Netphone will allow users to choose when the device and the apps can and cannot access the Internet – a feature not yet supported by any other smartphone. With ‘Safe Browse’ turned on, using various apps and access to specific websites will be free.

“Smartphones, by default, connect to the Internet. Users normally need to turn off the connectivity, which prevents them from truly enjoying the features of the device. Others choose to keep it on, then avail of all-you-can-eat data plans. Only the Netphone, with its ‘Safe Browse’ feature, gives users complete control and a worry-free Internet experience,” Bacareza added.

To create ‘stickiness’ among its users, various Smart services are also built into the Netphone, such as Smart Money, and one-touch access to relevant customer account services such as balance inquiry and subscription requests.

Underpinning Smart’s attempt to advance its ‘Internet for All’ objective is the telcos direction to start building its own ‘community’.

“The Netphone – with SmartNet at its heart – is a key component of our roadmap to staying competitive in an all-Internet Protocol (IP) environment that, if operators don’t watch out, could be ruled by a bevy of Internet players like Google and Facebook,” Vea said.

Smart also expects the Netphone to help ‘unlock’ new revenue sources amid the rapidly maturing local mobile market.

“With mobile penetration already at an all-time high, offering the Netphone will help us drive growth along entirely new revenue streams,” Vea added.

The Netphone’s system design allows Smart to rapidly deploy new widgets, apps and services over the air, to continuously enhance the Netphone’s value and relevance to its users.

Smart also envisions the Netphone to jumpstart an ecosystem of local mobile app development. Banking on the imagination and creativity of the ‘data generation’ (the successor of the ‘text generation’), the telco leader is upbeat on identifying potentials in other uses of mobile apps.

“The possibilities are virtually endless. Locally developed apps on affordable smartphones, such as the Netphone, no longer mean just mobile browsing and communication. Apps can be developed and used for a world of other beneficial products and services to assist in health care, education, disaster preparedness and monitoring, media, and more,” Vea pointed out.