Cisco just announced the Cius, an iPad-like device for business users that will run Android and allow HD videoconferencing.

Cisco Simplifies Mobile Collaboration With First-of-Its-Kind HD Video-Capable Business Tablet. The new Android-Based Computing Device Uses Cisco Collaboration Architecture and Virtual Desktop Integration to Deliver Mobile Computing, Collaboration and Communication Services

Cisco Cius is an ultra-portable device weighing just 1.15lbs (0.52kg) that extends the productivity benefits of Cisco collaboration applications to a highly secure mobile platform. In addition to full telepresence interoperability, Cisco Cius offers HD video streaming and real-time video, multi-party conferencing, email, messaging, browsing, and the ability to produce, edit and share content stored locally or centrally in the cloud.

Based on the Android operating system, Cisco Cius is an open platform for communication and collaboration whose form factor and applications are designed to more securely connect employees on-the-go with the right people in real-time, and to provide those workers with the ability to access and share the content they need from any place on the network.

Cisco Cius offers IT professionals new options when it comes to equipping mobile workers with computing devices. Through virtual desktop integration, Cisco Cius offers flexible computing options with cloud-based services, providing dramatically lower capital costs and cost-per-user for desktop maintenance.

Businesses can also tap into the growing Android developer community that is building business-class productivity applications with appropriate IT controls. The combination of applications and flexible computing options provides a compelling alternative to todays PC-on-every-desktop paradigm.

With launch of the iPad in the US and last week’s launch in the UK , not forgetting OS4 for the iPhone, you do not need to be an expert in communications to realise that the game is changing and the advent of a fully unified communications world is closer than ever.

This recent flurry of gizmos is a purposeful move by Apple. From a UC standpoint, the iPhone OS 4.0 is the lesser in importance, but by no means meaningless. The new features, which are described by the company and at many other places on the Internet, clearly will improve the iPhone’s UC functionality. Features such as third-party multitasking and improved e-mail contribute to an improved UC environment.

The iPad, however, is much the bigger news for UC advocates. Essentially, Apple could have named the iPad the iUC. The device, especially with VoIP functionality, is a powerful mobile unified communications platform.
Apple has also announced major strategic partnerships with Unified Communications (UC) vendors, including Alcatel-Lucent, Aspect, Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft, Mitel, NEC, Siemens, and others, to offer a unified platform for UC products and SIP interoperability. Soon not only will a user read books and play games on iPad, but also operate it as an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, Public Branch Exchange (PBX), Session Border Controller (SBC), and more. More importantly, the are saying that the iPad will become the UC industry standard platform, eliminating the fragmentation and lack of interoperability among these vendors’ products.

What these vendors have agreed on is to develop their products — PBXs, IVRs, UC servers, SIP phones, SBCs, etc. — to run on the iPad exclusively. I has been mentioned that Avaya, Cisco, and Microsoft engineers, with the help of Apple, have already developed a few proof-of-concepts in Apple’s labs.

Think about it, the iPad multi-touch interface should prove to be a hit… Imagine performing MAC (that’s “moves/adds/changes”) on the PBX by tapping and dragging extensions. Or enabling presence using the built-in geolocation service (either Wi-Fi or 3G). Or dialing using the on-screen soft buttons on an iPad SIP phone. Or configuring the SBC with gestures to establish trunks. And of course, all of these tasks could be performed in either portrait or landscape mode! The possibilities are endless — only limited by the developer’s creativity

Initially there were concerns about the iPad’s ability and drive — can it really handle SIP and VoIP without sacrificing usability and stability? Apple assured the vendors that there won’t be a problem, It has also been rumoured that they can be run in a cluster architecture commonly seen in database design.

Will you have to wait long? No, Apple expects most of these UC and SIP iPad applications to be ready by third quarter of 2010.

Carter Allen have been working very closely with SIPCOM to look into the SIPpad and SIPphone products and will be running demos late on this year. What’s certain is that these devices are here to stay and their ability to improve the way you work will be limitless.