Standard Bank has updated its tablet and smartphone offering to include a much broader range of devices with a specific focus on the Apple catalogue of iPads and iPhones. While Standard Bank has been offering tablets to its customers for nearly 18 months now, the updated range of devices almost brings parity to the offer you would find from the lighter of the two blue coloured banks in South Africa.
While FNB requires its clients to have a cheque account with a minimum monthly deposit made each month to be able to purchase devices from them, Standard Bank will allow anyone to shop through its online portal but requires a Standard Bank credit card to spread the payments out over 24 months interest free. For the most part, the prices offered by Standard Bank are within a few rand of the prices offered at retail stores for the same products with the exception of the MacBook Air which is over R2 300 cheaper than you will find it from the local Apple online store.
Apart from Apple iDevices and Macs there is also a range of Samsung’s Android based Galaxy tablets and smartphones on offer from the diminutive Galaxy S4 Mini to its flagship S4 brother as well as the large Galaxy Note 3 phablet.
The focus on tablets coincides nicely with the relaunch of Standard Bank’s banking app for both iOS and Android tablets earlier in the week. The new app which allows for greater customisation of the information offered up on each page of the app is expected to roll out to smartphones and tablets under 7-inches in size within the next 90 days.
Standard Bank seem to have made a complete hash of the MacBook Pro listed on the website with the header and the price suggesting that the model being offered is the entry-level previous generation 13-inch non Retina display MacBook Pro (MD101) but the description underneath offering a cross between the similarly priced previous generation 13-inch Retina display equipped MD212 model and the, decidedly more expensive, R25 000 range topping latest generation 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro(ME866).
