Cisco To Challenge iPad With Cius 'Business Tablet' 217
Posted
by
kdawson
from the first-into-the-ring dept.
from the first-into-the-ring dept.
GMGruman and several other readers noted Cisco's announcement of the forthcoming 7-inch Android-based iPad challenger, the Cius, which "... will offer multiple networking capabilities, keyboard and mouse support, and the ability to do videoconferencing. Cisco says it will cost less than $1,000, or about the same as an iPad. The Cius will come with a front-facing high-definition video camera that can record 720p video at 30 frames per second and a 5-megapixel camera at the back that can capture high-quality video and still images. Users will be able to engage in live video calls [most likely via WebEx] when the tablet is docked or being held. Some units will be available this fall, though general availability is not expected until early 2011."
Lot of space between $500 and $1k (Score:5, Insightful)
"Under $1k' (read $999) is what everyone thought the iPad would sell for.
But actually it's half that much, $500 for the base model (which I have and is fine).
It is interesting though they seem to be aiming this at video conferencing users, it could be a lot easier to set up and use than existing solutions.
Until the iPad 2 with Facetime comes out that is... 2011 seems like Cisco is cutting it close.
Re:Lot of space between $500 and $1k (Score:5, Insightful)
Under 1K ? Does Cisco sell anything other than parts that cheap? I mean other than the linksys line of products..
Looking at Cisco / Tandberg enterprise gear I would expect a device like this to cost 2K, after you licence all the functions on the device to make a call, and purchase some form of new CAL for your network gear to allow it to connect.
This could easily work (Score:4, Insightful)
It's targeted to business users. Apple doesn't really enter into that market. So I could see this being a success.
Re:OH GOD MAKE IT STOP (Score:5, Insightful)
I would bet everything I could turn to cash that this will fail. As in: Will have the same or less impact on the iPad as mp3 players had on the iPod during the last 10 years.
That's some confident gambling, but I'll put the contents of my billfold on this getting scrapped before it ships. A thousand-dollar video-conferenceing device? Get two netbooks and a coupla six-packs; a much better video-conferencing experience for less!
Re:The software is key. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:OH GOD MAKE IT STOP (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Bizarre (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not sure if this is all part of a grand plan, or just the sign of a company that needs to invest in something; but hasn't done anything more creative than slap firmware locks and gigantic price tags on OEM hardware in years...
Re:The software is key. (Score:3, Insightful)
Woooooooosh.
Re:But will it run IOS? (Score:2, Insightful)
Which one? Cisco IOS or Apple's iOS? Wait until a year or two from now and you're googling to solve a problem you're having with a switch or router and all you can find is info about iOS. Fun and Hilarity ensue :p
Re:OH GOD MAKE IT STOP (Score:3, Insightful)
If anyone could pull this off, I'd say it would be Cisco
I'm not real familiar with their teleconference stuff, but if it's like I remember it, it's a big jump from what they have to a general use business tablet. I'd like to be proven wrong as competition is good, but I just don't see it. Even if this thing is great at teleconferencing it will fail if it doesn't perform other business functions well. If it doesn't have a full exchange client and native support for PowerPoint it will be a complete failure. I mean, who are the users for this? it's not the average worker because the average worker has a desktop or a laptop which can be outfitted with a top of the line logitech webcam for $100 and companies aren't going to be handing out $900 devices to anyone below director level. It's not for conference rooms because most modern conference rooms have built in solutions for group conferencing. This is for executives, and if it can't replace a blackberry and a laptop for meetings they're not going to buy one except as a toy.
I think RiM and even Microsoft, if they can create a touch based UI, are the ones who could do a good job here. I mean, Microsoft did a pretty good job of the UI for the XBOX, they should be able to figures something out for this.
Re:Bizarre (Score:3, Insightful)
All those cheap Linksys routers, network devices and webcams now carry the Cisco brand name. They no longer say "Linksys" on them.
Sure, they had to buy a company to get into the home networking market, but they're there now.
Another failure in the making... (Score:5, Insightful)
If any of these companies learned anything at all from Apple, they wouldn't be announcing tablets to ship next year. They'd be announcing finished products that will be out this month. You can't build a product and aim at a moving target.
HP Slate with Windows 7? Dead, and HP bought Palm to recover. Lenovo Ideapad? Announced at CES, still not out, supposedly a new OS is coming. Cisco Cius? Looks cool, not out until next year.
iPad? Over 3 million of them shipped so far, they were in users' hands 10 weeks after they were announced, and by the time most of these competitors ship (if they do at all), Apple will have a second release of the shipping OS and may well have a second generation of the hardware out as well.
The only thing Apple's preannounced several months ahead of time in recent years was the original iPhone. For a reason - that froze the smartphone market for almost six months until the first one shipped.
Word to future iPad wannabes: Tell us about it when you're ready to ship. You're not going to freeze the market by announcing 6 months early. People aren't going to say "screw Apple, let's wait for the Cius to make tablets legitimate". You'll only look stupid when you don't ship the same product you announced 6 months ago.
Re:OH GOD MAKE IT STOP (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps you're not aware that Cisco sells $500,000 videoconferencing rooms to the DoD? Augmenting that with a tablet seems like a no brainer. Maybe they'll even go ruggedized and have that niche to themselves.
Not an iPad killer... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is not an iPad killer. It's not meant to be one. I'm at Cisco Live right now and all the Cisco geeks are wetting themselves over it...but it's not even a competitor to the iPad. It's a niche product to work with Cisco's other technologies. Hospitals are going nuts over the iPad and Cisco wants a play in that market. They want these customers to buy the Cius just like they do Cisco wireless handsets now. Look at the promo pics, it's docked in a Cisco phone.
Different markets.
Re:Another failure in the making... (Score:3, Insightful)
If any of these companies learned anything from Apple they wouldn't be announcing tablets to ship next year, they'd be announcing something new to ship this month.
Re:OH GOD MAKE IT STOP (Score:4, Insightful)
A typical good videoconferencing setup already is going to cost at least a couple thousands bucks. Furthermore, a meeting with 10 people who make $60k/year is already costing $30/hr*10 = $300/hr. If the iPad like device really improves usability or provides additional utility, then the company can get a lot of value out of their investment.
Re:OH GOD MAKE IT STOP (Score:5, Insightful)
Depending on what they're using the room for and how many people are expected to be in it, 500k doesn't seem to be all that ludicrous. VC setups aren't exactly cheap, and if you want to be able to connect to multiple locations without an external bridge, encrypt the content, have enough cameras, microphones and screens to cover the room properly, have more than one person participate in the meeting, and generally have anything that is even remotely like having a meeting with everyone being in the same room, it's even more expensive.
Just because you can spend a couple of grand and stick a camera on top of your television set and make someone feel like they're not being totally excluded from the meeting doesn't mean it's a functional solution.
Re:Lot of space between $500 and $1k (Score:3, Insightful)
So all people use their computers for at work is email?