Cisco sounds death knell for Cius tablet, blames BYOD movement
Senior Vice President of Cisco's TelePresence Technology Group OJ Winge announced that the company's Cius tablet would be killed off due to an increase in so-called "bring your own device" to work programs, but added that the company would continue to develop any-use software.
In a Friday blog post, Winge said that BYOD is quickly becoming a legitimate option as more companies are allowing employees to bring their preferred devices to work, meaning that legacy enterprise solutions are ceding ground to popular consumer electronics.
"We are facing a workplace that is no longer a physical place, but a blend of virtual and physical environments; where employees are bringing their preferences to work and BYOD (?Bring Your Own Device? to work) is the new norm; where collaboration has to happen beyond a walled garden; and any-to-any connectivity is a requirement, not a 'nice to have,'? Winge writes.
Cisco's own IBSG Horizons Study on virtualization and BYOD found that an overwhelming 95 percent of companies let workers bring in their own devices, and 36 percent of the enterprises supplied full support for the personal units. This combined with the overall stagnation of the enterprise tablet market, Cisco has apparently decided to cut its losses in the sector and will refocus its efforts on maintaining and creating software that can be used on a variety of devices rather than compete with enterprise-ready consumer products like Apple's iPad.
Although Cisco is cutting off investment in the Cius form factor and will forego any "further enhancements" to the platform, the company will continue to offer the current iteration of the tablet to select customers. The end-of-life announcement comes a little over one year after the tablet was launched in April 2011.
Cisco's Cius tablet with phone dock. | Source: Cisco
Winge notes that while Cius is effectively dead in the water, Cisco is looking to extend the reach of its Jabber messaging and WebEx web conference software to a larger number of platforms, including smartphones and tablets.
"We?re seeing tremendous interest in these software offerings. Customers see the value in how these offerings enable employees to work on their terms in the Post-PC era, while still having access to collaboration experiences," Winge said.
The executive writes that Cisco will put emphasis on "empowering individual collaboration styles" while offering products that can work on the widest variety of devices.
Apple's iPad has been leading the charge in transitioning enterprise to BYOD, and even government agencies have started to adopt the device as consumer demand spills into the workplace. The switch has been accelerated by the downfall of former enterprise giant RIM and its PlayBook tablet flop.
In a Friday blog post, Winge said that BYOD is quickly becoming a legitimate option as more companies are allowing employees to bring their preferred devices to work, meaning that legacy enterprise solutions are ceding ground to popular consumer electronics.
"We are facing a workplace that is no longer a physical place, but a blend of virtual and physical environments; where employees are bringing their preferences to work and BYOD (?Bring Your Own Device? to work) is the new norm; where collaboration has to happen beyond a walled garden; and any-to-any connectivity is a requirement, not a 'nice to have,'? Winge writes.
Cisco's own IBSG Horizons Study on virtualization and BYOD found that an overwhelming 95 percent of companies let workers bring in their own devices, and 36 percent of the enterprises supplied full support for the personal units. This combined with the overall stagnation of the enterprise tablet market, Cisco has apparently decided to cut its losses in the sector and will refocus its efforts on maintaining and creating software that can be used on a variety of devices rather than compete with enterprise-ready consumer products like Apple's iPad.
Although Cisco is cutting off investment in the Cius form factor and will forego any "further enhancements" to the platform, the company will continue to offer the current iteration of the tablet to select customers. The end-of-life announcement comes a little over one year after the tablet was launched in April 2011.
Cisco's Cius tablet with phone dock. | Source: Cisco
Winge notes that while Cius is effectively dead in the water, Cisco is looking to extend the reach of its Jabber messaging and WebEx web conference software to a larger number of platforms, including smartphones and tablets.
"We?re seeing tremendous interest in these software offerings. Customers see the value in how these offerings enable employees to work on their terms in the Post-PC era, while still having access to collaboration experiences," Winge said.
The executive writes that Cisco will put emphasis on "empowering individual collaboration styles" while offering products that can work on the widest variety of devices.
Apple's iPad has been leading the charge in transitioning enterprise to BYOD, and even government agencies have started to adopt the device as consumer demand spills into the workplace. The switch has been accelerated by the downfall of former enterprise giant RIM and its PlayBook tablet flop.
Comments
It almost sounds like what happened is: so long as Cisco could get corporations to use devices the people didn't want, they were okay; but as soon as people had a choice, they were sunk. I'm sure I must have misread that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronbo
It almost sounds like what happened is: so long as Cisco could get corporations to use devices the people didn't want, they were okay; but as soon as people had a choice, they were sunk. I'm sure I must have misread that.
I think you got it pretty accurate. The various companies that felt they had a "lock" on the enterprise customers are finding it just ain't so any mo'.
This goes beyond Cisco and includes RIM and Microsoft. So, by being absent from the smart phone and tablet market for years, I don't think Microsoft can count on their previous dominance to count for much of anything going forward. RIM has already seen themselves kicked to the curb. Even though they weren't absent, like Microsoft, they just didn't have what the market wanted and still haven't got up to speed.
I see RIMM biting the dust in 2013 but MSFT staying very relevant. No one's going to hand them an edge in phones and tablets, Microsoft is going to have to compete with iOS and Android for every corporate sale that comes around... and maybe not even considered up to equal to the competition.
I think that Apple has shown how to make a device that can do what Cisco can't do. it's obvious that Apple (steve jobs) has shown how to take the lead. Being that the Government is adopting the use of the iPad shows that software is key. Leave the device to Apple and make software for it so that employees can use that software on the preferred device. Basically I think that cisco is better at making networking devices and not video chat hardware. The video chat software development mentioned in this post is in my opinion a good move on cisco's part.
Update. Wow I just did a search for the Cisco Cius and here it is.
Cisco Cius 32 GB - Android 2.2 1.6 GHz - Phantom gray $902.00
Apple iPad iOS 5.1.1 32GB $599.00
Apple iPad iOS 5.1.1 32GB $729.00 with Cell unit.
The cost of the Cius to me is too much. I think this is where Cisco lost it. And from what I have learned of Android tablets is that they are limited to how high an os you can upgrade them too limiting their ability to do certain tasks that may be needed to handle on the job requirements. Unlike the iPad where you can upgrade to the newest iOS and at a lower cost (iPad 2). I am sure that the iPad v1 will be limited to its ability to upgrade to a new iOS but maybe not until iOS 6. Still it will do plenty compared to the Android Cius.
Your cost analysis doesn't include the fact that the Cius tablet is only 7". Most 7" tablets are in the $300 range.
Ci-what? this article is the first time I even heard of the Cius. Didn't CISCO have a trademark on iPhone for a video conferencing device that they reached some sort of agreement to let Apple use the name as well - whatever happen to that?
http://cdn1.afterdawn.fi/v3/news/cisco_cius_with_dock.jpg
I found this article that said it was supposed to be under $750:
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2011/06/30/cisco_prices_its_cius_tablet_for_under_750
I wonder how soon video calling is going to catch on. NPD said something like 63 million people are active video callers, though the reports I saw didn't mention how active. And 63 million active video callers out of billions of phone users doesn't sound like a large proportion.
They do claim the ability to do video conferencing over 3G/4G. Such a feature isn't enabled on a US iPad that I've found.
From what I'm seeing on Google Shopping the Media Station dock is another $500.
That is part of the problem. Even people in the tech field haven't even heard of this device.
But, I do hope they do a better job integrating webex and telepresence solutions for commodity platforms. It is a huge opportunity for remote-work applications.
With those prices, it's hard to justify. The top-end iPad costs less than their unit, most docks and accessories cost about a tenth of that.
It looks like their iPad app supports video conferencing on 3G:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cisco-webex-meetings/id298844386?mt=8
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffDM
...
They do claim the ability to do video conferencing over 3G/4G. Such a feature isn't enabled on a US iPad that I've found.
Can't any iPad or iPhone or iPod Skype over 3G/4G?
It looks like it does. I haven't used Skype in a long time.
I think only FaceTime is unable to work over a cellular connection which seems clear it's because Apple makes deals directly with the carriers while Skype et al. aren't. That said, it does look like FaceTime over cellular network will come in iOS 6.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
I think only FaceTime is unable to work over a cellular connection which seems clear it's because Apple makes deals directly with the carriers while Skype et al. aren't. That said, it does look like FaceTime over cellular network will come in iOS 6.
There's two aspects that people forget when Video and Voice are used
1. Carriers offer these services already, at an expensive premium that they'd like to keep
2. Carriers have to implement proper QoS (aka bandwidth prioritizing, aka throttling) for Voice and Video links to function in a usable manner.
So if a carrier wants to force everyone to use their version of Video calling, they just break QoS to only support their own version. Likewise with Voice. This is why Skype is pretty much the only option for people, because Skype doesn't rely on QoS, it just does best-effort connections, and operates closer to something like BitTorrent when you don't make POTS calls. Many SIP implementations assume that it's on it's own private network that it doesn't have to compete with other applications. This is why Cable companies give you a second cable modem to connect a telephone instead of using your existing one (Their implementation of QoS is simply to give you a dedicated 1Mbit connection with a separate device.)
Apple can make FaceTime work over LTE connections, but for it to not be a bad experience, the carriers need to remove the stick from their behinds and have data plans that allow more than 90 seconds of video.
What he said: "Customers see the value in how these offerings enable employees to work on their terms in the Post-PC era..."
What he meant: "Heck yeah. Now we don't have to buy our employees any Post-PC devices. They'll bring their own!"
unlike most here, i've actually played with a cius and know the cisco business extremely well
from the start i couldn't see it catching on, too little too late, but cisco has never been famous for being the first with the best, it tries many things, sometimes they're little more than a rebadge of the spoils of acquisition, sometimes you just think wtf, but what succeeds is developed, what flounders is changed or deleted
but if you mock the price it's because you do not understand the business, cisco list price is meaningless, depending on circumstances an enterprise customer is unlikely to pay much more than half, even for a one-off order, with volume, promotions and other incentives it can go a lot lower
then cisco has a global support service that makes apple's look like a bad joke, it's geared towards extremely high service levels and rigourously monitored, if you want 24x7x4 replacement to your site (optionally with a certified engineer in attendance), you can have it pretty much anywhere (oil platforms in the sea or out in the desert can take a bit longer), in some areas 24x7x2 is available, you can even have dedicated spares on site if you want, all managed for you, web-based call placement, no being jerked around by a call centre agent, immediate availability of serious engineering support for p1 incidents, published bug lists, etc. etc.
for enterprise/telco/government/etc. customers relying on device availability and support services across hundreds or thousands of locations, services often matter more than the latest bells and whistles, there may well be some very happy cius-using organizations out there, and they'll be able to use them for years to come because the end of support date will be a long time after the end of sale date, so security updates and bug fixes will keep on coming until that time
but, like i said, the cius was too little, too late
Interesting, except that carriers can't favor their own services by providing them with better QoS to the detriment of competing products.
I'm not sure exactly what "doesn't rely on QoS" is intended to convey -- do you mean to say that Skype doesn't rely on a specific minimum latency, maximum dropped packets, etc. from the bandwidth providers involved from end-to-end? Given that Skype is packet-based and has nothing to do with POTS, it's a misnomer and/or misrepresentation to suggest that the packets are routed or switched by a single "carrier" even if both ends of the Skype conversation terminate on handsets on the same wireless carrier's network.
I haven't checked recently but it used to be the case that you could effectively use FaceTime on an iPad over 3G IF the iPad was actually connecting to the Personal Hotspot (via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB) of an iPhone.
My single Comcast modem provides two voice lines, HD video, and 4MB/s (i.e., ~32Mb/s) data.
Lastly, there are competitors to FaceTime and Skype that also work over 3G, for example Tango.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronbo
It almost sounds like what happened is: so long as Cisco could get corporations to use devices the people didn't want, they were okay; but as soon as people had a choice, they were sunk. I'm sure I must have misread that.
You are correct and I think we should also add Windows to that list of things corporations force their people to use. The IT luddites are losing their grip and their traditional hatred of all things Apple has ceased to ensure their continued employment. One of my son's childhood friends went to one of those for-profit technical schools and received his MCSE certificate. He is now the "IT" guy at a small company and never fails to launch a vitriolic attack on any Apple product. There are thousands and thousands of these types still out there trying to protect their dwindling turfs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffDM
It looks like it does. I haven't used Skype in a long time.
Skype on iOS is pretty bad. It can't keep a voice connection open on Wifi or cellular. Invariably it drops calls within a minute and the more often you reestablish the connection the faster it drops again. I have no idea what causes the problem but it exhibits the same exact behavior no matter where your are, or what network you are using, making it almost unusable. On the desktop, Skype works fantastic. I use it all the time.
I guess that my experience of using Skype with few problems on my iPhone while traveling in multiple countries, including ones known to have shoddy telecom infrastructure such as India, is unique. And that includes inbound calls on my US SkypeIn number ringing through flawlessly.
To clarify, my experience outside the US is predominantly on WiFi. However, voice and video in the US over 3G generally work really well for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tmhisey
I guess that my experience of using Skype with few problems on my iPhone while traveling in multiple countries, including ones known to have shoddy telecom infrastructure such as India, is unique. And that includes inbound calls on my US SkypeIn number ringing through flawlessly.
To clarify, my experience outside the US is predominantly on WiFi. However, voice and video in the US over 3G generally work really well for me.
I have the exact opposite experience with my Skype number while I'm using my iPhone, traveling abroad. People call me and it rings on their end only twice before going to voice mail. On my end it never rings. Later I see a missed call in the Skype log. That is on Wifi and 3G.