But wait, there’s a justification! Which is probably not a good sign to begin with, needing one of those. Justifications, I mean. Cisco insists that the Cius’s $US750 is just the high-end price, but wholesale customers will be getting a much better deal. They say that it’s built for the rigours of corporate communications, but then again so are rotary phones. And they’ve built in a clever little system that lets IT departments control what kind of apps their employees download.
Oh, Cisco. All the cool kids were doing it, and now you are too. But dressing a tablet up in an expensive suit doesn’t make it a good dance partner. And I suspect that the companies who wake up and decide they desperately need tablets will just fine with any of the bigger and/or cheaper options out there. Which is pretty much all of them. [http://www.businessinsider.com/cisco-cius-the-biggest-difference-between-a-tablet-and-a-business-tablet-is-400-tablets-2011-6]
Matt
Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 9:18 AMGizmodo – you totally missed the point of this tablet. The tablet is designed with the MOVI Video Conferencing Client which is NOT available on any other tablet (ipad/android or otherwise) and quite frankly, I haven’t seen any Tablet successfully do corporate VC yet (Facetime is corporate VC!) or tie in with H323/SIP based standards.
We will buy a number of these as they double as a voip desk phone as well as a video client. The android tablet functionality for us is a nice to have for us.
And we won’t be paying $750 either ;)
Leon
Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 9:50 AMTotaly agree with you, these are a good alternative to the locked down ipads, for corporate use! Gizmodo is just Jelly they cant afford one!
Ollie
Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 10:17 AMDoes it surprise you that someone who writes articles from their bedroom after they wake at 9am missed the point completely?
Aaron
Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 10:19 AMAgreed.
Cisco will make a lot of money out of this. They already have most large businesses using their phones.
Ian
Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 11:11 AMAgreed with all of the above. This is to help Cisco’s ongoing telepresence push, VOIP services, IM and corporate presence capabilities.
This could potentially do well but they’ve spent too long bringing it to market. It needs to be running Honeycomb or it will fail.
There’s also a big market if they nail the corporate policy and lockdown side of things. It’s possible it could sell like hot cakes if all of that is in order…
Phil
Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 4:10 PMOuch.
Anyone can see that Brian wrote this at 7:40am… that’s way before 9am.
Brenton
Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 7:25 PMWe’ve already ordered one as a test unit with intentions of getting many more for the execs. With the base, they also double as a thin client to replace your desktop PC complete with USB inputs and HDMI out. $750 for a real corporate solution tablet, Cisco VoIP phone, Thin Client PC, HD video solution… sounds like an unbelievable deal. No wonder we’re waiting in line to get one!
Phil
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 2:07 AMReally- Cisco will sell loads?
Windows 8 anyone? How will Cisco compete against Samsung, HP, Dell, Lenovo etc?
HQApps store- I counted 96 apps including 15 minute yoga and some UK soccer club clock???
Really??
I am sure they will sell a few hundred to some Cisco fan boys. Er- BTW. Just about to go into a presentation with a Cisco sales guy- he is running M$FT powerpoint on a Lenovo! :-)
Matt
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 8:28 AMThey are not trying to compete against MS? they support thin client technology which means you load a windows (or otherwise) virtual machine onto it. We have 300 thin clients in a single build within our corporate enterprise. They all have voip desks phones (which cost almost as much as a Cius) and thin client/monitor. If I replaced them all with Cius Tablets, I would halve the cost of implementation and make video calling available on all desks.
Cisco is aiming squarely at the corporate space where google/apple have not dared tread and where RIM is flailing.
I’m no Cisco fanboy but if the Cius is a s good as advertised then its a done deal imo for the corporate space.