A tablet for grown-ups
The year of the tablet has extended its reach into the enterprise market with the launch of the Cisco Cius, a business tablet designed to enable mobile communications to professionals, with an emphasis on video conferencing.
Cisco has been building on its networking strength with a heavy emphasis on video in recent years, acquiring both telepresence and consumer video companies. It has also made it clear that it wants to add to its unified communications offerings with a more comprehensive enterprise proposition. So this move into the tablet space is likely to be a lot more than just a ‘me too' iPad.
The seven inch tablet only weighs half a kilo. It brings to life all the recent talk about Android for x86 as it combines the Google mobile operating system with an Intel Atom CPU. It has a forward-facing HD video camera (720p, 30fps) and a rear-facing 5MP camera. The Cius is compatible with a Cisco phone docking station.
"Cisco Cius epitomizes how the network is changing the way we live, work, learn and play," said Tony Bates, SVP and GM for enterprise, commercial and small business at Cisco.
"This platform can transform how healthcare professionals advance patient care; how retailers deliver service experiences to consumers, or how universities deliver world-class education to their students. Best of all, Cisco Cius offers IT functions a way to dramatically lower the cost-per-user of provisioning those new experiences."
Here's an image and a video from the Cius launch. It will start being available within the next few months.
