Cisco uncloaks Android video tablet for suits
Cisco Systems has announced a business-centric, HD video—capable touchscreen Android tablet it claims, er, "redefines industry paradigms" for mobile communication and collaboration. The Cisco Cius was announced Tuesday at the company's Cisco Live 2010 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The seven-inch, 1.15lb (0.52kg) tablet …
Ok so it does look a little the Amstrad emailer thing but the back-end actually exists now. I do like Cisco.
If they make a way to send briefcases full of money through it, then they could use them for the G20 summits and save taxpayers billions of dollars!
That's 50% heavier than the iPad I'm typing this on, for a screen not much more than half the size - and less battery life! I admit the iPad is crippled for business use, but that's just software and control-freakery. Surely Cisco can do better hardware than that?
This is 520g, the iPad is 680g ~ 730g depending on the version.
680 * 1.5 <> 520
I managed to misread lb as kg! Not too clever... Or perhaps my iPad has its own built-in reality distortion field [tm]? That makes for a much more sensible device. As the ex-owner of a tablet PC I'm very aware of the weight issue.
....or about 1500 GBP if you're in the UK.
until the price. Who'd have guessed that would happen with a Cisco product?
That first promo image is a little odd, since it shows a perfectly normal-looking video call happening while the tablet is lying in nostril-cam mode.
Using the included dock as a video phone is a decent idea, but I'm pretty sure nasal inspections are the primary reason why Apple didn't include a camera in their tablet.
...through the purchase of an optional license. As will the app store, the browser, and wireless capability. Inserting MicroSD storage will have its own tiered array of optional licenses based on the number of cards you desire to insert over time and their capacity. Some of these options will be bundled in utterly meaningless functionality clusters. Warranty support will be one year, with another tiered set of "service and support" options to "optimize your ROI".
And because it's a "Business" Cisco Android tablet it will have a management app for your company that inexplicably runs only on Windows.
Net TCO over the two year life of the fully enabled object will thus be $37,000 US.
You forgot that CCIE voice will be required for the configuration and maintenance of the back-end infrastructure at first so you will have to "buy" a few more Isaac Asimov's Profession style freshly reprogrammed droids off the market. After that you will have to buy new courseware packages to reprogram your helldesk and support droids accordintly.
You will also need additional Unity, call manager and media gateway licenses for interfacing to your existing infrastructure and will also have to have them upgraded. The upgrade will be free if you have gold support and a corresponding CCO account and a very discounted rate of a few 10k an install for the majority of loosers who do not.
So your TCO figure is off by let's say 10-20K. A 50-60K USD sounds more like it. You will also no longer be surprised at the size of John Chamber's bonus (if you ever were surprised in the first place).
@JohnG,
US$1000 is about £663
I think you'll find he missed the Joke Icon.
Although it's no joke....
Really? You don't say.
Let me explain: If you take the price charged by Cisco in the USA for some standard product and compare it with price charged for the same product in the UK, you will find that the UK price is substantially higher, even when you take duty, shipping and unfavourable exchange rates into account.
Would be an appropriate strap line. Come on $1000 for a new device with what support infrastructure. Apple must be laughing their socks off. It won't hit the vanity marked, as it sure ain't cool, and HTC must be having a good chuckle and thinking, we can do better than that, and a lot cheaper.
$500 might be more appropriate.
BTW what support infrastructure would you need, Cisco provided, I'll bet.
You're missing the whole point.
This is not aimed at the vanity market as you put it and it is not intended as a mainstream rival to the i-Pad.
This is aimed at companies that are already spending big $s on CIsco Telepresence. Compared to what they will already be spending on that $1000 a unit for what is effectively a portable TP suite their execs can use to join TP meetings from anywhere and flash to impress customers is going to seem like a bargain.
If this thing has an up to date version of Android with full access to the OS (i.e. full installation of apps, etc) this would make quite a nice consumer device, if it wasn't for the hellish price tag. The Android app store also needs a hell of a lot of work (being able to buy apps from my damn Milestone would be nice) but I appreciate that isn't Cisco's fault.
Sign up, sign up for The Register's weekly mobile & wireless newsletter - click here
