Cisco Announces The Cius™: Their New Business-Oriented Tablet

Cisco has recently announced a tablet computer aimed squarely at the business community.  Make no mistake, this is within a different market segment than the Apple iPad.   This tablet will offer HD-quality video conferencing for the business worker - anywhere, anytime.

As an employee of a service provider - this is pretty exciting stuff.  I just love seeing more reasons to use up bandwidth!  And to top it off - the docking station provides wired network access while in the office as well as serving as a charging stand.   Once you're ready to leave the office, the Cius offers wireless connectivity via 3G and 4G for truly "anywhere, anytime" functionality.

Ok, so perhaps I've drank the cool-aid here..  but watch the videos below and tell me that this doesn't look compelling for a number of reasons!

Cisco Live Launch, John Chambers announces Cius™ [Part 1]:



Note:  Yes, this blog post is a little bit off topic, as the Cius™  is not yet released; and certainly not yet on the CCIE Voice exam.  However, it will be supported by the Cisco suite of Unified Communications products and therefore, has gotten my attention.  It definitely has great potential to become fairly prolific within the business community.

I'm looking at this product release from the eyes of an engineer, so it will be a little bit different.  I'm going to highlight the sections of the available Cius product sheets that I think are most interesting to voice engineers.

Product Overview

• Campus mobility with IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n, and broad mobility with 3G (4G planned) cellular support
• High-resolution multi-touch color display with an intuitive user interface
• High-definition (HD) video with Cisco TelePresence^™ solution interoperability
• Virtual desktop client integration (VDI) and cloud computing
• Full range of Cisco Collaboration and Unified Communication applications
• Open access to the Google Android Market with appropriate IT controls
• Expanded Android applications for business, linking Cisco Collaboration APIs through a software developer kit (SDK)
• Accessories, sold separately, which include base stations for enhanced capabilities and carrying cases for stylish yet functional protection while mobile

Cisco Live Launch, John Chambers announces Cius™ [Part 2]:



Features and Benefits

• Seven-inch tablet design built to bring mobility to the business with a choice of wired Gigabit Ethernet connectivity through HD media station, IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity, or 3G (4G planned) cellular service
• Contact-based user experience that provides simple access to people with a flexible choice of communication methods
• HD video (H.264/AVC, 720p [1280x720] @ 30fps [frames per second]) and interoperability with the Cisco TelePresence solution
• Integrated suites of collaborative applications: Cisco Quad, Cisco WebEx^™, Cisco Unified Presence, instant messaging, email, and Cisco Unified Communications Manager voice and video telephony features
• Virtual Desktop Integration for centralized data center business applications
• Expanding Android applications for business by linking Cisco Collaboration APIs through an SDK 
• Support for a wide range of applications through the Google Android Market

More Information
Cisco Cius Product Information
Cisco Cius Solution Overview (pdf)