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Cisco All But Kills Cius Tablet 65

alphadogg writes "Cisco is slowly killing off its Cius business tablet less than a year after it started shipping. The Android-based collaboration tool, which featured a 7-inch touchscreen and was not intended to challenge more consumer-oriented tablets such as the Apple iPad, fell victim to the BYOD trend and cloud computing, Cisco said in a blog post. Cisco will instead 'double down' on software offerings like its Jabber and WebEx products for more popular tablets and smartphones supporting a variety of operating systems."
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Cisco All But Kills Cius Tablet

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  • Cannot trust Cisco (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Openstandards.net ( 614258 ) <slashdotNO@SPAMopenstandards.net> on Saturday May 26, 2012 @04:48PM (#40123503) Homepage
    After Cisco put back doors in all their equipment, why would anyone who knows this ever consider buying a tablet or any device with plenty of alternatives?

    http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/57070 [networkworld.com]
    • Are they sure it didn't just fall victim to "a competitor made a much better product for the money"?

    • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26, 2012 @05:47PM (#40123865)

      It states right in the article you linked that by law it is required to be incorporated into all networking equipment sold to ISPs, AND that Cisco is the only company who makes its lawful intercept architecture public.

      Not really trying to defend them here, but you may want to consider all the facts when making this kind of statement. =)

  • .. or run off a 48 volt power supply?
    • by zbaron ( 649094 ) on Saturday May 26, 2012 @07:48PM (#40124761)
      Yes, they do support PoE when docked in the media station.

      They also require connectivity to a WLAN at all times for signalling, but will use the wired LAN for voice/video when docked. I must be one of the very few people who actually make use of a Cius, it has a lot of promise as a device that combines a video phone and with the addition KDM, a VDI client that you can pick up and take with you when you leave your desk.

      There are some "version 1" issues of course, like the the hdmi display being limited to only to mirroring at the moment and I believe they are the only available Atom based Android tablet, so it does run warmer than others. I however think a 7" screen is too small when trying to use a tablet as a replacement for a laptop for things like note taking in meetings.

      Now, if the Cius tablet is going away, might we see a dock for an iDevice that has a telephone handset?
      • might we see a dock for an iDevice that has a telephone handset?

        Why would you need that, when you can easily use so many bluetooth or microphones built into headphones?

        I've used the iPad for a lot of Skype calls, a good set of earbuds with a microphone worked great.

        • by zbaron ( 649094 )

          Why would you need that, when you can easily use so many bluetooth or microphones built into headphones?

          So very true. However, a lot of people out there still prefer to grab "the phone" when it rings or pick it up when they want to talk to someone. Besides, have you ever tried to slam down a bluetooth headset when it all just got too much?

  • Another Bad Idea (Score:4, Interesting)

    by GeneralTurgidson ( 2464452 ) on Saturday May 26, 2012 @04:54PM (#40123539)
    Cisco needs to stop trying these new markets and focus more on their core offerings. Their latest networking an voice gear is slipping when compared to competitors. Microsoft Lync for instance stand to replace a lot of Cisco UM capabilities for most businesses at half the price. All in one UTM devices are eating away at Ciscos security market by combining the cost of 3+ incredibly expensive Cisco devices into one. Cisco, fix your business model before you become irrelevant.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Instead of having us work off the clock for free for your unsupported products why dont your departments increase our budget to support them or better yet have someone support them yourself.

    Why even have a help desk or IT department if people come in do whatever they want and scream if do not support it?

    • Tech support is not rocket science, if you can't handle it and adapt with the times I suggest a change of careers.
      • I believe the issue is the beancounters cut down and limit helpdesk and then the policy changes where the amount of calls/tickets doubles, yet they are still supposed to have them all finished by the end of the day. This drives up support costs and puts the burden on the workers. If the employer refuses to pay for more support then those who need to get their email or other more appropriate business oriented task done will have to wait.

        Worse, they now need to learn IOS, Andriod, and Blackberry in edition to

        • I believe the issue is the beancounters cut down and limit helpdesk and then the policy changes where the amount of calls/tickets doubles, yet they are still supposed to have them all finished by the end of the day. This drives up support costs and puts the burden on the workers. If the employer refuses to pay for more support then those who need to get their email or other more appropriate business oriented task done will have to wait.

          If this is indeed the reality of your workplace, it should not be too difficult for you to demonstrate the increase in ticket volume. If your manager still believes you can do twice the work with half the staff, it is your manager's problem - not your users' problem. Do not take it out on your users, or attempt to say what is good for the entire workforce globally (your comment "BYOD does not belong in the workplace") based upon your manager's near-sightedness.

          Worse, they now need to learn IOS, Andriod, and Blackberry in edition to Windows and Cisco stuff on their dime.

          I'm sorry, but this industry is constantly

  • Reverse vaporware? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Ignacio ( 1465 ) on Saturday May 26, 2012 @04:58PM (#40123571)

    Did anyone even know this thing existed?

    • by pushing-robot ( 1037830 ) on Saturday May 26, 2012 @05:06PM (#40123631)

      It's the next big thing: Streisand marketing.

    • That seems to be happening more commonly these days, especially in the mobile world.

      Company announces they will end a product line, and everyone looks around asking "Did you even know that existed?", of course I guess that explains why it's being ended.

    • Did anyone even know this thing existed?

      Yes, but I never actually saw one in the wild. I would have thought Cisco would have used the consumer marketing skills the Linksys people had to get this in the hands of consumers as a "Linksys compatible home wireless communication device".

    • by nurb432 ( 527695 )

      They really do exist, as I saw one once, last summer in real life. Our rep had one. Never saw it again. Now i know why.

      • They really do exist, as I saw one once, last summer in real life. Our rep had one. Never saw it again. Now i know why.

        I'm looking at one on my desk right now. It's a decent phone and convenient to snatch it out of the cradle and walk around mid-call, but I'd rather have something else for a tablet device. There are a number of flaws that make it a poor choice for a road warrior, like needing a power brick to charge. Putting the focus on software is the right move.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I suspect if it ever made it to market Cisco would have buried it in licensing costs for every feature.

    Have you ever tried to provision their VoIP systems? You are typically in for 4 CALs per phone right off the bat for dial tone and voicemail. That is after paying double for their hardware vs similar SIP or UC handsets from other vendors..

  • I didn't realize Cisco had gotten into the drug manufacturing business.

    But then maybe the folks paying full price for Cisco's latest gear need meds; in that case, they should be manufacturing Aripiprazole.

  • You need to imagine Strong Bad's voice [homestarrunner.com] saying it for full effect:

    HANDSPRING'D!!!

    I remember when the CEO of Handspring announced [palminfocenter.com] that smart phones were the future for Handspring, and sales of the Visor PDA went almost to zero immediately, and sales of Visor accessories (Springboard cards, etc.) also went almost to zero immediately.

    The Cius Tablet has been shipping for less than a year, and the CEO just announced that no further development will ever be done. The chances of anyone getting interested in this

  • I was very impressed with how Cisco integrated the tablet into the only device an end user would ever need. Check out the 10 minute demo on You Tube:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=2wueml_qOmA#t=1280s [youtube.com]

  • > "Cisco is slowly killing off its Cius business tablet [which] fell victim to the BYOD trend and cloud computing,

    So a wise company would recognize the need for massive amounts of ultra high-speed routing hardware to supply a voracious Internet model where billions of computers are little more than dumb terminals streaming faux desktop video from computers running elsewhere?

    Karl Malden as "The Soldier's" General Omar Bradley: "Do you have anyone in mind, Gerorge?"

  • The big mistake a lot of companies keep making is assuming you can focus on the business market and not get killed. RIM did it and it worked for a while, now they are toast. Sun was obsessed about ignoring the consumer, and they collapsed into nothing when consumer level hardware (PCs) ate their lunch. Microsoft's initial success was going against this trend (and overtaking IBM in the process) and their demise is in caring too much about enterprise sales of Office and Windows and ignoring consumer trends. A

  • "BYOD is the new norm.... 95% of organizations surveyed allow employee-owned devices in some way, shape or form in the office... These stats underscore a major shift in the way people are working, in the office, at home and on-the-go, a shift that will continue to gain momentum."

    Cisco is now able to identify and predict "a shift that will continue to gain momentum," but a year ago, nobody could foresee it?

    In 1980, nobody ever brought an Apple to work to run Visicalc?

    I have no idea what the real story is. Ma

"What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite." -- Bertrand Russell, _Sceptical_Essays_, 1928

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