Last week Cisco quietly announced the end of the Cius: "[We] will no longer invest in the Cisco Cius tablet," said Marthin DeBeer, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Video and Collaboration Group in a CRN interview. This appears to signal the beginning of the end of a short period where UC vendors valiantly tried to be tablet manufacturers.
In mid 2010, both Cisco and Avaya announced, within three months of each other and with great fanfare and excitement, the Cisco Cius and the Avaya Desktop Video Device (ADVD). While there are some who feel that the Cius expiration is a negative, it seems to me that it is the inevitable progress of communications solutions from a vertically integrated system to being a component of an overall IT architecture. And it is a reflection of the inherent shortcomings in both designs. Where we are today could have been predicted in late 2010.
When VoIP and voice soft clients came about in the early 2000s, the event did not encourage the communications vendors to run out and get into the PC market. At the time there was clear recognition that the integration of voice services into PCs was not a logical reason to enter into the highly competitive world of PC manufacturing. However, for some reason the potential tablet market excited two of the major UC vendors into jumping into a market space that they were ill equipped to compete in.
To be fair, when work on the ADVD and Cius was started (probably in 2009), it was before the iPad was announced, so we should cut the companies some slack. However, the market entries of both the Cius and ADVD seemed to be done without regard to the realities of the market in mid 2010 when they were launched. Never mind that Apple introduced the iPad in April of 2010 and by July there was already talk of an iPad 2; never mind that the price points for the UC devices were 2-4 times the iPad (though with the deep 50% discounts typical in the UC space, these were much closer in reality than they appeared); never mind that both devices had significant issues with their form factor and usability; and never mind that both were based on early versions of the Android operating system and had not migrated to the newer and more stable/featured versions and would not support open Android apps. For almost 2 years they were positioned as the flagship desktop solutions of their respective companies. Even when Apple announced the iPad 2 with dual cameras, the UC vendors continued to position their devices as superior. In the end the iPad 3 with the HD quality of the Retina Display and a reasonable camera for video (the FaceTime camera is still only VGA quality) may have been the death knell. How things have now changed: Cius is gone and ADVD was a virtual no-show at the recent Avaya User Group (IAUG) event.
As I said, both the Cius and the ADVD were hampered by bad design choices, especially when compared with the best that Apple and Korea have offered since their introduction. While the Avaya ADVD was a reasonable screen size at 10.6 inches, the design was really heavy (at 3.3 pounds, over twice the iPad 3) and uncomfortable to carry due to a sharp lip. The Avaya ADVD was, as its name implies, a relatively small desktop video system with minimal portability. The expensive video chipsets in the ADVD gave superior video, but the screen was too small to take real advantage of the enhanced resolution.
The Cius concept was, while more carry-friendly due to weight and shape, hampered by a small 7 inch screen as part of its "drop into the phone" design. From the outset this was an obvious flaw. If a device is going to be hand carried, instead of "pocketable" like the typical 3-4 inch screen size Smartphone, it is much preferable to carry a 9-11 inch device than a 7 inch. A 10 inch screen device has twice as much useable area as a 7 inch device and, in screens, size matters. As I blogged when Cius was announced, it suffered from the "Death in the Middle" syndrome of being too large to put in your pocket and too small to be really useful as a display device. In fact, when the late Steve Jobs was asked if he was planning a 7 inch iPad, his response was that 7 inch tablets were "DOA" (Dead on Arrival).
So the Cius, while a cool concept in fitting into a phone-like base, was very impractical for real use in a business environment. In fact, most of the demos of the device were vertically specific, versus general business. Finally, the very fact that we are discussing two devices that are over two years old and Apple is in the third iPad iteration and Samsung has introduced 3 Galaxy oPads (other Pads) since the Cius and ADVD were announced, clearly shows the UC vendors are not equipped to compete in this rapidly changing market. New oPads in 2012 from Amazon Toshiba, Asus, Lenovo and more show how competitive this space will be. In fact, even Google may have its own oPad soon (or is that a gPad?).
So where do we go from here? Is there a viable alternative for a physical presence on the desktop for the UC vendors other than a traditional desk phone? And if the only products that they can build are desk phones, what will the market pay for something that is rapidly losing its significance in daily office life? Are the UC/telephony vendors in danger of becoming the next Wang, once the leader in a system technology (word processing) that devolved to became an only a part of an applications suite? If the focus is on retaining a hard desktop presence like the phone, then, just like Wang and its disregard for the PC, the UC vendors may become less and less relevant. Building a better phone with a better display is probably not the key to success.
However, the UC Vendors appear to be rapidly moving towards adopting and embracing the concept of an open desktop environment and the open BYOD movement that is re-shaping IT. This is the future, and those who grasp it will succeed.
The one great thing that came out of the Cius and ADVD adventures is that both Avaya and Cisco were ready to take advantage of the iPad and oPads as they stormed into the market. The Avaya Flare interface (which ran on the ADVD but was always positioned as moving to other platforms) is now out on the iPad and it looks great. And Cisco is delivering their new Jabber based interface on the iPad as well. In fact, both UC vendors seem to be delivering what may be their best user experience on a tablet that they do not manufacture. While the PC versions of these user experiences are coming as well, the ease of camera integration and portability of the tablet may make the tablet version the premiere UC experience. If you can get the best UC experience on a $400-500 commercial tablet, with all of the other benefits a tablet brings, it certainly would appear the options for a UC vendor-manufactured tablet are low, especially with Apple's current market domination. And the advent of BYOD as the largest source of these devices in the enterprise probably precluded corporate purchases of custom devices like a Cius or ADVD, even if they were cost competitive.
The next frontier for the UC vendors will likely be the tablet base. Figure 1 shows a concept for a tablet base that integrates a low-function phone capability (for when the tablet is not present), along with features that optimize desktop use of a tablet. Integrated microphones, speakers, adjustable bracket with tilt for both landscape and portrait modes make this ideal for optimizing use of a tablet in the office. The positioning of the tablet and its camera at head height eliminates the hulking and nose-hair video typical of today's video phones. By developing innovative ways to integrate a tablet in the office environment, the UC vendors can demonstrate both their ongoing desktop value as well as a new opportunity to create extended value. While only ShoreTel has actually shown a base so far, expect to see some form of base from both Avaya and Cisco by 2013.
Figure 1 Enterprise Tablet Base Concept
Another option is to go "glassless" with the desktop/office solution. Siemens recently showed a very small device that is essentially the UC intelligence/camera/codecs, but uses an external commercial video display. It was very effective demo to feature the device being pulled out of a coat pocket. It is smaller than a toothpaste box, and showing a different next generation device for the office. With a really good 50-inch monitor costing about $700, this is an office video system that anyone can deploy. What Siemens did not show was how this device could interact with a tablet to deliver a new in-office experience.
Finally, the purpose-specific tablet market continues to thrive. In the medical community, custom built, purpose-specific tablets are used frequently. In fact, the Cius was built for Cisco by OpenPeak, a vendor with extensive experience in this area. As tablets become more generic, optimization for markets and verticals may be the only way for the multiplicity of vendors to survive. Expect that the UC vendors will see partnerships with the vertical-specific tablet manufacturers as a great way to enter key markets with optimized communications solutions. In many of these applications, the power of UC integrated with business applications may drive significant value.
In the end though, the real point is best summed up by Mr. DeBeer: "Instead [of Cius], we're going to continue leveraging other people's tablets and move to deploy Jabber, as well as our other software on top of that." At least one UC vendor has realized that they are not going to succeed as a tablet manufacturer and will focus on succeeding on top of the best tablets and other devices out there.
While Avaya has not announced the final days of ADVD, it is hard to believe that there will be a strong ongoing effort to extend and expand the ADVD offer, especially with the success of the Avaya Flare solution for the iPad. Indeed, the future is bright, but the bright retinal display glass is just not going to be purchased directly from the UC vendors. Bring on the iPads...and the oPads.
Note that the UCStrategies team has done a blog on this topic led by Michael Finneran. It can be found on iTunes under UCStrategies and is the May 30 Podcast.
