a look at anything technology related

2010 is the year of the tablet it would seem.  At CiscoLive! this week, Cisco introduced the Cius, a hand-held tablet that runs on Google’s Android platform.  Cisco is calling this a “business” tablet to differentiate it from the iPad by categorizing it and all other tablets on the market as “consumer” products. 

I see the tablet being used by higher-ups for HD video conferencing.  There is full integration with Cisco’s Telepresence offerings which is nice if you have this in-house already.  It also integrates with other Unified Communications tools such as the CUCM, Unity and Presence servers.  One other cool feature is that it can be used as a Thin client to run a full-blown OS when docked at the office. That means that the Tablet could potientially be the one and only tool that someone needs to perform all of their daily tasks. The Cius is supposed to be priced under $1000 but to get all the features, you need to have millions of dollars in Cisco UC gear behind the scenes.  Regardless of cost, many CIO’s will want their network department to install this gear so they can show it off for 15 minutes until the next shiny new toy gets introduced. Personally, I have had my hands on several tablets and they’re not my thing. I do see the potential however and I really like the idea of a true desktop replacement. We’ll just have to wait and see.