With the Cisco Cius product launch, the age of desktop video conferencing may well be emerging. The Cisco Cius is an ultra-portable, mobile collaboration business tablet that offers access to essential business applications and technologies.

Right now many vendors offer desktop conferencing products but, due to various complexities and costs, they just haven’t gone mainstream.  This may well change with the market penetration, reseller and support services that Cisco brings to the market with the launch of their products.

The early adaptors are likely to find making video conferencing calls within an organization extremely easy and become hooked on the experience. I currently use the Skype service and a video camera to communicate when travelling. Using video has greatly enriched my communication experience and I believe once you make the plunge to video you won’t go back. It also makes sense for organizations that are always looking to help employees stay connected to their work, increase productivity, and reduce costs. Check out the Cius video on YouTube for more details.

There are some challenges to mainstream desktop video conferencing. Organizations will need to adapt their networks to support the right type of products and the bandwidth demands of video. Managing the network and bandwidth issues will be critical along with maintaining quality of service (QoS).

Another interesting part about this device is its capability to detach from its VoIP phone base and become portable. This extends the ability for mobile users to travel throughout the organization, home and abroad and still be completely connected to their voice and application infrastructure.

The Cius will be supported by Cisco's Unified Communications Manager and support Cisco tools such as Cisco Quad, Cisco WebEx Connect and Cisco Presence. Android developers will have access to Cisco Collaboration APIs through a Cius-specific SDK.

Here are the device specs…

• 720p HD camera / 5-megapixel rear-facing camera
• 7-inch VGA touch-target display
• 32 GB flash memory
• 1 Ghz Intel Atom processor
• Android operating system (and access to Android App store)
• 8 hours of battery life,
• Accelerometer
• 1.5 pounds 
• Support for 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and 3G, with 4G services at a later date

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