Cisco announces business-ready iPad alternative (page 2 of 2)

Cius (pronounced 'see us' to emphasise its videoconferencing capabilities) runs a modified version of Google's Android software platform on Intel Atom hardware, and is designed to work closely with Cisco's suite of unified communications, telepresence, and videoconferencing applications. While interesting as a product in its own right, Cius also demonstrates how tablet computing in the enterprise can be differentiated from consumer-focused devices such as the iPad and its competitors. Whether or not the Cius is the product to crack the enterprise market remains to be seen. It's a complicated proposition and the technology is not yet mature, and will only be truly attractive to customers who are already heavily invested in Cisco products. Nevertheless, Ovum believes this is an interesting approach to the challenge of improving mobility using tablet devices.

Cius attempts to replace a laptop, a smartphone, and a netbook with a single device that is adaptable enough to move with the user through different use cases and connectivity types while maintaining key functionality. The aim is that a user should be able to access email, IM, voice, video calling, collaboration tools, and business applications regardless of location, and without having to carry multiple devices. In the office, the Cius can be placed in an optional dock allowing the use of a desktop monitor and keyboard, with a speaker and handset for voice and video calls over wired LAN. Removed from the dock, it can connect over 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi or 3G (with plans for 4G support).Cius supports HD video and Cisco's Telepresence, Quad, Show and Share, WebEx, Presence, and IM applications, and offers a virtual desktop environment allowing users to run cloud-based business applications on the device (although the limited device memory and processing power will restrict the power of device-side applications to some extent).

Choice of Google Android platform significant

The Cius is one of the first products announced based on an x86 version of Google's Android platform. Android has proliferated on ARM-based smartphones in the last 12 months, and is poised for a similarly rapid emergence on consumer tablets in the next 12 months as manufacturers push out their iPad competitors. The choice of Android is noteworthy in that this platform has so far been almost exclusively consumer-oriented. It is also noteworthy in that Cisco plans to enable the Android Marketplace, which gives end users the ability to download third-party applications (most of which are consumer-focused), a feature that can be managed by IT departments. Cisco has clearly chosen an Intel Atom chipset for the extra power it offers (at the expense of battery life, although Cisco is claiming eight hours of battery use), which makes sense given that the Cius is likely to be used mainly with a business-ready docking station at a desk.

Reformatting news and magazine media: pay-walls, application stores, and tablets, Ovum 2010