What we can learn from the Microsoft Kin and Cisco Cius
The Cius promises to be the business traveler’s tablet of choice, focusing heavily on video calling features - as you might expect from Cisco. While its look is definitely more 90s vision of telephony’s future than an iPad, the device seems like a winning combination of Android operating system, 3G/WiFi connectivity and serious intentions. I just wonder how theoretical that eight hour battery life will be with an HD chat in progress.
(Wired)
When you read about a device like this on the same day Microsoft announces the death of the Kin (after just a couple of months), you don’t hold out much hope for its success.
But let’s look beyond success:fail prognosticating. Both Microsoft’s Kin, and Cisco’s Cius, win or lose, are about business technology companies acknowledging something huge: consumer technology is where platform battles are being won and lost. Consumer devices are getting used at work. What we like at home, we want to use at work. And though the Kin and Cius (?) may flop, companies like Microsoft and Cisco simply cannot afford not to participate in the shaping of tech futures.
