Cisco Systems has unveiled the Cius, a 7-in. touchscreen tablet computer that runs the Android OS, and is sure to be compared to the AppleiPad .
The device was demonstrated at the Cisco Live! customer event here by CEO John Chambers with a live videoconferencing transmission over the tablet from researchers on a submarine in the Aegean Sea. The audio portion of the demonstration broke up slightly, but the video was constant. A satellite link was included in the connection and added some minor delay.
Chambers showed how the Cius (pronounced “see us”) can be held in a wired docking station for desktop use and then carried as a mobile tablet when needed.
Cisco posted specifications of the new device, but no pricing was announced.
The device works with cellular 3G and 4G networks, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. High-definition 720p video is supported, Cisco officials said. It will generally available in the first quarter of 2011.
The tablet weighs 1.5 pounds and has a detachable eight-hour battery. An Intel Atom 1.6 GHz processor powers the device.
While Cisco's online information describes a 7-inch device, Chambers also demonstrated a slightly smaller version of the Cius for use by students. No details on it were available.
Ken Dulaney, an analyst at research firm Gartner, said “there will be a broad tendency to compare the Cius to the Apple iPad,” but that the Cius is really an “upgrade to a worker's desktop, replacing the deskphone” with more interactivity for video.
But Dulaney said he is concerned over what price will be charged for the device, whose 7-in. screen is smaller than the the iPad's 10-in. screen. “And possibly [I'm concerned] that people in the marketplace just want iPads,” he added.
Cisco got the name Cius from a combination of “Ci,” for the first two letters of Cisco's name, and “Us.” When combined the word is a play on “see us,” to reflect the tablet's videoconferencing capabilities.
