4 ms·

Cisco Cius: Cisco Unveils Android-Based, Business-Focus Tablet Computer

14 points by sahaj 16y ago

ShabbyDoo 16y ago
Of course, the path to buying ONE of these things is a long, twisting road through sales reps and the like. Why can't I just buy one online at a reasonable price?
- wmf 16y ago
  Where's Cisco's profit in that? Although it may be hard to buy one, you can probably get ten for free as a pilot program if you're considering buying a thousand. Seriously, I imagine that resellers like CDW will have these once they are released.
  - ShabbyDoo 16y ago
    It seems that large vendors miss out on bottom-up sales opportunities. Imagine if I as a developer could sign up for a free, three month test drive without asking permission from my boss or anybody else but Cisco. I'd bring the thing to work, show it off, build some little app that would display order shipment information from the ERP system, and then show it to the VP of Sales. A few months later, the Cisco sales rep would be having a high-level conversation where the value proposition was already made. Instead, Cisco will concentrate on convincing the VP of Sales and the VP of IT that a million dollar tablet purchase would be successful and that one could indeed connect the ERP system to it. I love TI's supposed entry into the hobby market with its $4.30 demo device. If nothing else, it's a cheap way to cement brand recognition with a bunch of techies. It's gravy if their $0.75 chips make into some consumer product because the demo board was the path of least resistance to building a prototype.
- Timothee 16y ago
  What wmf said, plus the fact that they need a long sales cycle to allow them to actually have something that works. She moved a piece of plastic around but I don't think she turned it on.
hop 16y ago
Thanks Kara Wilson, VP of Collaborative Solutions Marketing. As a corporate division manager myself, you identified the very cornerstones we plan to implement in Q3 - synergy, paradigm shift, and corporate MBA tech speak. Getting signed Cius purchase approval from corporate now.
- rman666 16y ago
  I stopped watching about 20 seconds into the video. Did she even turn the thing on?
  - mey 16y ago
    I jumped around in the clip, looking for it in action, but never saw anything... I also gave up.
  - tezmc 16y ago
    I watched the whole thing yet can't remember a thing she said, a strange experience. I felt a little like I was listening to the school teacher from Charlie Brown. No, she didn't switch it on or show any kind of demo, I probably would have remembered that.
- Timothee 16y ago
  From the video: "Cisco Cius redefines industry paradigms about how, where and when work gets done. It's designed from the ground-up to meet the needs to businesses like yours who compete in today's global economy." shivers It reminds me of some of the copywriting at the last company I've worked for. Dilbert strips nail that kind of lingo pretty often. It bothers me to no end. It also shows how copywriting can be very difficult: the opposite of that is companies who act super buddy-buddy with their users. That also can get irritating fast.
- mkramlich 16y ago
  When I woke up this morning I said to myself, "Self, today you should shift a paradigm!" Turns out I was too tired to get around to that today. Synergy is doable.
muhfuhkuh 16y ago
At least they got further along than MS Courier. They actually have a useless prototype, rather than a vaporvid[1]. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmIgNfp-MdI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmIgNfp-MdI
nroach 16y ago
And now we know why the iPad didn't ship with a front-facing camera. But cisco must really be steamed, what with Apple calling their mobile OS "iOS" and integrating face-time to the new iphones.
- runjake 16y ago
  Apple licensed the use of "iOS" from Cisco.
- chrismsnz 16y ago
  IOS is a Cisco trademark and Apple actually licenses it off Cisco. http://blogs.cisco.com/news/comments/cisco_and_apple_agreement_on_ios_trademark/ http://blogs.cisco.com/news/comments/cisco_and_apple_agreeme... So they're probably not too steamed :) edit: iphone was a cisco trademark too and Apple either licensed it or bought it outright.
runjake 16y ago
Some things I've noticed: - Intel Atom-based (1.6ghz) Android Device. Is that port mature yet? I didn't think it was. - Includes Android Market. Ok, so the SDK compiles to Dalvik, so existing apps will probably run just fine on it. Right? - Includes Firefox for Android? Isn't it still in pre-alpha stage? A lot of this smells like fish vapor to me.
zzzmarcus 16y ago
tl;dr: "designed for business" "next wave of collaborative experiences" "fundamentally change" "ushering in a new era of productivity" "redefines industry paradigms" "designed from the ground-up" "global economy" "breadth of capabilities" "open extensible platform" "productive experience on the go" "collaboration architecture" "cloud computing" "total cost of ownership" "comprehensive suite of unified communication and collaboration applications" "broad array of capabilities" "intuitive contacts driven user experience" "a new way of working" "a tremendous competitive advantage" That about sums it up. And no, she doesn't ever turn it on.
- tortilla 16y ago
  You could have just linked to the bullshit generator: http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html
- theBobMcCormick 16y ago
  Unfortunately, all that crap is like caviar to their target market - bigco C-level executives.
wmf 16y ago
Obviously this product isn't even close to release and is bound to be expensive, but there are some interesting ideas here. The tablet has a dock that looks like a phone; it replaces your Cisco IP phone. The dock has HDMI and USB; it also replaces your thin client. It looks like Cisco is trying to learn a bunch of lessons from netbooks and tablets and apply them to enterprise IT.
napierzaza 16y ago
Look for its 4000$ price tag buried on an overly complex invoice sheet near you! Great, I shudder for the moment when my boss will actually nod his head in agreement when Bell Canada asks if we need these.
mieses 16y ago
The idea of the phone as a dock for the tablet is an elegant design concept. Let's hope it supports SIP. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6789/ps7290/ps11156/solution_overview_c22-608594.html http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6789/ps...
pvdm 16y ago
Cisco ? They never got wireless working on the Flop Camera.

14 points by sahaj 16y ago

Of course, the path to buying ONE of these things is a long, twisting road through sales reps and the like. Why can't I just buy one online at a reasonable price?

wmf 16y ago
Where's Cisco's profit in that? Although it may be hard to buy one, you can probably get ten for free as a pilot program if you're considering buying a thousand. Seriously, I imagine that resellers like CDW will have these once they are released.
- ShabbyDoo 16y ago
  It seems that large vendors miss out on bottom-up sales opportunities. Imagine if I as a developer could sign up for a free, three month test drive without asking permission from my boss or anybody else but Cisco. I'd bring the thing to work, show it off, build some little app that would display order shipment information from the ERP system, and then show it to the VP of Sales. A few months later, the Cisco sales rep would be having a high-level conversation where the value proposition was already made. Instead, Cisco will concentrate on convincing the VP of Sales and the VP of IT that a million dollar tablet purchase would be successful and that one could indeed connect the ERP system to it. I love TI's supposed entry into the hobby market with its $4.30 demo device. If nothing else, it's a cheap way to cement brand recognition with a bunch of techies. It's gravy if their $0.75 chips make into some consumer product because the demo board was the path of least resistance to building a prototype.
Timothee 16y ago
What wmf said, plus the fact that they need a long sales cycle to allow them to actually have something that works. She moved a piece of plastic around but I don't think she turned it on.

hop 16y ago

Thanks Kara Wilson, VP of Collaborative Solutions Marketing. As a corporate division manager myself, you identified the very cornerstones we plan to implement in Q3 - synergy, paradigm shift, and corporate MBA tech speak. Getting signed Cius purchase approval from corporate now.

rman666 16y ago
I stopped watching about 20 seconds into the video. Did she even turn the thing on?
- mey 16y ago
  I jumped around in the clip, looking for it in action, but never saw anything... I also gave up.
- tezmc 16y ago
  I watched the whole thing yet can't remember a thing she said, a strange experience. I felt a little like I was listening to the school teacher from Charlie Brown. No, she didn't switch it on or show any kind of demo, I probably would have remembered that.
Timothee 16y ago
From the video: "Cisco Cius redefines industry paradigms about how, where and when work gets done. It's designed from the ground-up to meet the needs to businesses like yours who compete in today's global economy." shivers It reminds me of some of the copywriting at the last company I've worked for. Dilbert strips nail that kind of lingo pretty often. It bothers me to no end. It also shows how copywriting can be very difficult: the opposite of that is companies who act super buddy-buddy with their users. That also can get irritating fast.
mkramlich 16y ago
When I woke up this morning I said to myself, "Self, today you should shift a paradigm!" Turns out I was too tired to get around to that today. Synergy is doable.

muhfuhkuh 16y ago

At least they got further along than MS Courier. They actually have a useless prototype, rather than a vaporvid[1]. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmIgNfp-MdI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmIgNfp-MdI

nroach 16y ago

And now we know why the iPad didn't ship with a front-facing camera. But cisco must really be steamed, what with Apple calling their mobile OS "iOS" and integrating face-time to the new iphones.

runjake 16y ago
Apple licensed the use of "iOS" from Cisco.
chrismsnz 16y ago
IOS is a Cisco trademark and Apple actually licenses it off Cisco. http://blogs.cisco.com/news/comments/cisco_and_apple_agreement_on_ios_trademark/ http://blogs.cisco.com/news/comments/cisco_and_apple_agreeme... So they're probably not too steamed :) edit: iphone was a cisco trademark too and Apple either licensed it or bought it outright.

runjake 16y ago

Some things I've noticed: - Intel Atom-based (1.6ghz) Android Device. Is that port mature yet? I didn't think it was. - Includes Android Market. Ok, so the SDK compiles to Dalvik, so existing apps will probably run just fine on it. Right? - Includes Firefox for Android? Isn't it still in pre-alpha stage? A lot of this smells like fish vapor to me.

zzzmarcus 16y ago

tl;dr: "designed for business" "next wave of collaborative experiences" "fundamentally change" "ushering in a new era of productivity" "redefines industry paradigms" "designed from the ground-up" "global economy" "breadth of capabilities" "open extensible platform" "productive experience on the go" "collaboration architecture" "cloud computing" "total cost of ownership" "comprehensive suite of unified communication and collaboration applications" "broad array of capabilities" "intuitive contacts driven user experience" "a new way of working" "a tremendous competitive advantage" That about sums it up. And no, she doesn't ever turn it on.

tortilla 16y ago
You could have just linked to the bullshit generator: http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html
theBobMcCormick 16y ago
Unfortunately, all that crap is like caviar to their target market - bigco C-level executives.

wmf 16y ago

Obviously this product isn't even close to release and is bound to be expensive, but there are some interesting ideas here. The tablet has a dock that looks like a phone; it replaces your Cisco IP phone. The dock has HDMI and USB; it also replaces your thin client. It looks like Cisco is trying to learn a bunch of lessons from netbooks and tablets and apply them to enterprise IT.

napierzaza 16y ago

Look for its 4000$ price tag buried on an overly complex invoice sheet near you! Great, I shudder for the moment when my boss will actually nod his head in agreement when Bell Canada asks if we need these.

mieses 16y ago

The idea of the phone as a dock for the tablet is an elegant design concept. Let's hope it supports SIP. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6789/ps7290/ps11156/solution_overview_c22-608594.html http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6789/ps...

pvdm 16y ago

Cisco ? They never got wireless working on the Flop Camera.