“Cisco is looking at making inroads into the growing number of Android-based non-smartphone tablets with its just-announced Cius tablet,” Stephen Schenck reports for Obsessable. “While it might not be an iPad-killer, the Cius seems like a singularly-focused tablet intent on delivering high-quality video conferencing.”
“Basically, take the iPhone’s newly-added video chat, put it in an iPad, and give the tablet a forward-facing 720p camera and you have the Cius,” Schenck reports. “The Cius can still connect to the Android Market for app downloads, but Cisco seems dedicated to avoiding the Cius becoming some generic jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none tablet with its HD camera and extensive communication options. While that’s going to make it stand out from the crowd, you can bet that it’s also going to end up costing quite a bit more than a run-of-the-mill tablet.”
Full article here.
Sam Diaz reports for ZDNet, “At 1.15 lbs., the device is an ultra-portable tablet that’s targeted at market segments that can benefit from real-time, video-based collaboration… It’s WiFi-enabled, comes with an accelerometer, has a detachable battery and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera.”
Diaz reports, “Customer trials of the device will begin in the third quarter, with general availability expected in the first quarter of 2011. Pricing details were not released.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Nope. By the time Cisco’s business-centric, non-mass-market device would be getting up to speed, Apple’s iPad will do the same thing, almost definitely cost less, with easy and safe access to multiple times more apps, run on a better, more efficient processor, will be from Apple, not Cisco of all companies, while also being fully-compatible with the CEO’s Apple iPhone 4 which, oh-by-the-way, even if iPad never does, already offers video conferencing to business and every other user right now. Today.
I don’t think Jobs is specifically targeting enterprise, just as he is not out to replace every Windows PC. If you are already in a “business” or office setting, most likely you can just do video conferencing in front of a PC. Why would you buy tablets for managers just so they can sit in a conference room video chat? Just set up the conference room with vid-conf. Now if they are away from office, and all you need to do is dial the other guys’ phone number(s) to video conf, they I would say iPhone/iPad will be very competitive. I think this is one thing RIM has to consider in building their tablet – how to keep the customer in the RIM centric world. If the exec start using a non-RIM tablet that does everything a Blackberry does, there is no absolute need for a RIM phone either. The fight will be amongst the “IT” suppliers, while Apple still has a big customer base outside of IT to thrive.
Cisco is not trying to compete with the iPad. This Cius device relies on a Cisco network and server infrastructure … Cisco Unified Communications and Cisco TelePresence products. It will integrate seamlessly in that environment. It is not a consumer product like the iPad. Maybe when Cisco delivers set top TelePresence devices to the home market, the Cius will become a consumer product. At this point, the Apple and its iPad is a “non-player” in the corporate environment.
This thing is for business people.
@MrMcLargeHuge
I agree that the actual “business customer” is the CEO (and other execs) who want compatibility with their iPhones. But keep in mind that Apple will be making FaceTime an open protocol, so there’s every reason to assume that the VC capabilities of this device will include the ability to have a session with an iPhone user.
That being said, I agree that Cisco has an uphill battle. I get the impression they are doing this just so they have a dog in the fight.