a blog by Peter Leonard
Part of CEO John Chamber’s speech here at the annual Cisco Convention was a surprise product announcement — a new business-focused tablet computer based on Google’s Android operating system. You can read more coverage of the intro from Engadget and Gizmodo, but on the show floor itself the new device was imprisoned behind glass:
Despite the business focus of the product itself, the devices’s unveiling during the keynote used primary education as the context. Actors portraying students, parents and teachers put the tablet to work pitching the video-conferencing and e-textbook capabilities. (The latency of a satellite hookup to research vessel scotched the dream of seamless telepresence during the demo, unfortunately.)
But whether Cisco chooses to focus on the classroom or the boardroom (or both), several questions remain about its entry into a crowded tabloid market. Non-phone devices based on Android have had a rocky road to travel getting the key differentiator of that operating system — the open Android market — to work. Companies that have brought Android-based tablets to market, such as Archos, have found themselves both stuck with older versions of the OS, as well as locked out of the vibrant Marketplace — a software distribution system much more open and less controlled Apple’s App Store, but paradoxically unavailable for any device Google refuses to authorize.
Put another way: take away the apps that Google requires co-branding for (Gmail) and won’t allow tablets to use (Marketplace), and you end up with a much less compelling story for a competitor to the current market leader, Apple’s iPad. Though Cisco’s expertise in enterprise features such as IP telephony and video telepresence can make the Cius a well-fitting cog in a corporation’s existing IT infrastructure, users may wonder why they’re kept out of the dynamic and ever-growing Android software marketplace for seemingly arbitrary reasons.