Cisco kills Cius enterprise tablet
Success of iPad in BYOD world left little room for a business specific slate, and Cisco will now focus on collaboration apps
Published: 28 May, 2012
READ MORE: Cisco Systems | Tablet
At the height of tablet fever last year, Cisco announced its own product, Cius, to support its enterprise applications. But with 'consumer' products like the iPad infiltrating the corporate world, it seems there is little space for a specialized business slate, and Cisco has ceased development of the product.
Cisco will discontinue investment in the 7-inch Android tablet, and no more will be developed, according to OJ Winge, SVP of the firm's telepresence group, in a corporate blog post.
Cius was not designed to be a full iPad challenger but a device which would offer an optimal experience for Cisco collaboration and conferencing applications, driving their uptake with a smooth user interface. However, according to Winge, the trend towards BYOD (bring your own device) limited the effectiveness of the strategy. He wrote: "95% of organizations surveyed allow employee owned devices in some way, shape or form in the office, and 36% of surveyed enterprises provide full support for employee owned devices ... Based on these market transitions, Cisco will no longer invest in the Cisco Cius tablet form factor, and no further enhancements will be made to the current Cius endpoint beyond what's available today."
The death of the product will be gradual, he insisted, adding: "However, as we evaluate the market further, we will continue to offer Cius in a limited fashion to customers with specific needs or use cases." In a major refocusing last year, Cisco pulled back from many device activities such as the Flip camcorder, but still saw a role for Cius. Now it will stimulate its collaboration business with plans to "double down" on tablet versions of offerings like Jabber and WebEx. Jabber for iPad was launched earlier this year.
"We will leverage key learnings and key collaboration experiences native to Cius in our other collaboration products," Winge wrote.
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