I have to admit, I find it kind of bracing when normally-staid communications-vendor types just cut loose and start calling each other things like "stupid".
The current instance features an Alcatel-Lucent exec, Eric Penson, general manager for enterprise applications, branding Avaya's and Cisco's decisions to release enterprise tablets as "stupid." Now, Avaya at least is firing back, with EMEA product marketing manager Nigel Moulton being quoted as calling ALU "behind the curve" because Alcatel-Lucent is only now coming out with a tablet strategy. "If they were true innovators, they'd have figured this out 18 months ago, so it actually shows how behind the curve they are," Moulton is quoted as saying.
So who's the stupid one here?
There's actually enough stupid to go around, or maybe if you want to be diplomatic about it, enough shortcomings. Avaya and Cisco can rightly claim to have beaten ALU (and RIM, and everyone else) to the punch in the tablet wars--and that fact matters. Cisco was actually the first to announce a tablet, and Avaya was the first to deliver one.
It matters because the iPad has already gobbled up a huge amount of market share and mind share in the enterprise, and may already have secured the position as the de facto tablet of choice, despite enterprise managers' many reservations about it, for the same reason that they were reluctant to embrace the iPhone.
So the fact that Avaya and Cisco responded quicker to the iPhone threat than ALU and others is a point in their favor. What each has done with that lead, however, is also important to consider.
Cisco has been slow to actually release the Cius tablet, but at least seems to have acknowledged an absolutely crucial, fundamental truth--enterprise tablets must be priced competitively with iPads and any other consumer tablets that emerge as contenders. Bowing to this reality, Cisco's Barry O'Sullivan announced at Enterprise Connect that Cisco was cutting the list price of the Cius from its original sticker price of $1,000 to sub-$700.
Avaya, in contrast, originally slapped a truly...well...not-smart price on the Desktop Video Device: $2,500 for the tablet, plus another $1,500 for the Flare interface software. Since then, Avaya has tried to massage the message, pegging the price at $3,600 list and $2,000 street. Which means it's only $1,000-$1,200 too expensive, best case, rather than $3,000-$3,200 too expensive.
Avaya has said from the start that they'll make Flare available for iPad and Android tablets, and they've been making more noise along those lines recently. That's clearly the way to go, and the sooner they get that Desktop Video Device in the rearview mirror and out of everyone's minds, the better.
On the other hand, there's no denying that ALU is late to the whole tablet discussion--Avaya's Alan Baratz was talking up the "chameleon device" idea, which became the Flare/tablet, around VoiceCon San Francisco in the fall of 2009--even before the iPad launched. Cisco announced Cius in late June 2010, just a couple months after iPad. Enterprise managers who have been wondering what their alternative to rogue iPads might be, didn't receive much guidance from Alcatel-Lucent in the months that followed.
The real question here isn't about who's stupid. The truth is, the phenomenal success of the iPad in general, and in the enterprise particularly, caught everyone by surprise. The real question now is, will the market support such a thing as an "enterprise tablet," or has the consumerization of IT already claimed tablets as another victory?
It's an uphill struggle, but I think there is still the possibility for certain enterprises to keep better control over tablets than they did with iPhones and other smartphones, and that's because of the way tablets are likely to be used. At the CTIA Wireless show last month, I heard lots of discussions around enterprises' compliance and security concerns, especially in verticals that are hungry for more secure tablet implementations--primarily, health care.
Your typical road warrior, salesperson, or other knowledge worker who uses an iPad because it's cool and fun--that person may be hard to corral into switching to an "enterprise" tablet. But those who aren't early adopters, or those looking to upgrade to second-gen tablets, may still be reachable.
