Cisco's TelePresence Technology Group Senior Vice President OJ Winge announced on Thursday, May 25, that the company will cease to offer its Cius tablet due to an increased "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) to work programs. Cisco will, however, continue to develop any-use software.
In a blog post on Friday, Winge explained that BYOD is rapidly gaining significant ground as a legitimate option, as increasingly more companies are allowing their employees to bring their devices of choice to work. This, of course, means that legacy enterprise solutions are losing 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,'" wrote Winge.
In its own IBSG Horizons Study on virtualization and BYOD, Cisco found a whopping 95 percent of companies allow workers to bring their preferred devices to work, while 36 percent of the companies actually provided full support for the personal units. Such findings, combined with the overall sluggishness of the enterprise tablet market, have promptedd Cisco to cut its losses in the enterprise sector. Instead, the company will refocus on maintaining and creating software for a variety of devices rather than struggling to compete with enterprise-ready consumer products such as Apple's popular iPad.
Cisco is ending investment in the Cius (pronounced "See Us") form factor and will forego any "further enhancements" to the platform, but it will continue to offer the current tablet version to select customers. "As we evaluate the market further, we will continue to offer Cius in a limited fashion to customers with specific needs or use cases," Winge said.
Thursday's announcement comes just a little over a year since the tablet was launched in April 2011. According to Winge, Cius is not completely out of the picture, but Cisco is looking to boost its Jabber messaging and WebEx web conference software to reach a larger number of platforms, including tablets and smartphones.
"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," added Winge. According to him, the company will focus on "empowering individual collaboration styles," while offering a range of products compatible with the widest variety of devices.
