Cisco had a short lived attempt at getting into tablets, but that didn’t work out so well. They launched the Cisco Cius slate a while ago and now it appears that the product is dead, much like the HP TouchPad last year. The product was meant to appeal to the enterprise segment, but in the end it didn’t even make a dent into the iPad’s domination.
The iPad is still the favorite device of people who have to do business or rely on enterprise features on a tablet. That’s also why the BlackBerry PlayBook never caught on, although it’s a pretty decent tablet and its recent price changes made it very appealing. The announcement regarding the death of Cius came via the official Cisco blog, with SVP OJ Winge writing that Cisco won’t invest in the Cius tablet form factor and won’t enhance it further. I wonder if there’s any company out there that bought an entire batch of Cius units… I’m sure they regret that now.
However, Cisco said that they’ll continue to offer the Cius in a limited edition for customers with specific needs. In case you don’t even remember this product, know that it comes with software such as WebEx, Cisco Quad, Cisco Show and a proprietary messaging application. The device also supports Cisco Telepresence video conferencing, so it’s got all the goodies for the average business man, but the price is also huge (around $750).
