Cisco limps out of tablet production

Cisco Systems has announced it will no longer manufacture the Cius tablet. The news snuck into a company blog post by OJ Winge, Senior Vice-President for Cisco's TelePresence Technology Group entitled "empowering collaboration". The Cius was launched a year ago for the specific needs of businesses, which explains the absence of mourning consumers paying their tributes. "Cisco will no longer invest in the Cisco Cius tablet form factor, and no further enhancements will be made to the current Cius endpoint beyond what's available today". Winge said. "However, as we evaluate the market further, we will continue to offer Cius in a limited fashion to customers with specific needs or use cases". Sold only to Cisco's enterprise partners, the seven-inch Cius cost $750 (£478), around £80 more than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 or the iPad 2, and could access Cisco networking devices by IP via their mobile web browsers. Cisco's Cius distribution was further marginalised by, what Winge called, a "major shift" towards BYOD (bring your own device) in the workplace. According to the Cisco IBSG Horizons Study from May, "95% of organisations surveyed allow employee-owned devices in some way, shape or form in the office".