On Tuesday the 29th at this years “Cisco Live,” Cisco unveiled its latest collaboration tool–an Android based tablet called “Cius” (which coincidentally rhymes with Zeus!). I’ve seen many people tweet and blog about how Cisco is trying to take on Apple’s iPad but based on my conversations with Cisco people here at Cisco Live, I can say that’s definitely not the case.
The Cius is a tablet computer, there’s no doubt about that, but that’s probably the only commonality with the iPad. The Cius is meant to dock into the base of a phone and makes a video phone. The device can then be undocked and carried around as tablet.
The Cius is designed to be a communications tool. It’s optimized for video, social networking and other collaboration tools. The target audience will be teachers, nurses, doctors, field service workers and other transient campus type workers. In many cases this might wind up being a shared device. The device isn’t meant to be a personal entertainment tool, e-reader or a device to use productivity applications like word processing and spreadsheets. The Cius is also meant to be sold to companies and then supported through the IT department. In most cases it will be an augmentative device to the things being used, not a replacement (except for maybe the phone). Lastly, the Cius is built to have security integrated into it. For markets like education and healthcare, security is a must.
Conversely, the iPad is consumer device first. The iPads are brought into organizations through the users and, in many cases, self supported by the community. It’s a music player, video player, personal productivity tool and is meant to be a replacement for another device that a worker would carry. Security is an afterthought to iPad. Part of the appeal is the coolness factor. The Cius is a corporate class device, the iPad is a consumer class device.
For Cisco, the fact it’s an Android based device does signal some winds of change at the company. Instead of building its own operating system and interface, it chose to work with Android where there is already strong developer support. Had Cisco chosen to go down this path for its IP phones, maybe we would have seen a number of applications for the phones that would have driven additional value to the VoIP industry. This should also help Cisco build up its own fledgling Cisco Developer Network (CDN) community, by being able to reach out to the Android developers.
Looking ahead, I see Cisco continuing to deliver pro-sumer type devices that can raise Cisco’s overall brand awareness with corporate workers and consumers, not just IT pros. It looks like it will be a great corporate device–complementary, not competitive, to iPads and other tablets.
SOURCE