Plenty of Room for Flare, Cius -- and Others
Vendors recognize that there is a healthy market for enterprise-grade tablet devices. Avaya's unveiling of the Flare Experience on Sept. 15 follows the introduction of the Cisco Cius by a couple of months. More will follow.
12 Hot New Tablets Hitting the Market
The more, the merrier.
Tablet devices aimed at the corporate world are a natural. So natural, in fact, that Apple's iPad, which is aimed at consumers, is finding lots of use at work.
It is also not surprising, though interesting nonetheless, that the Cius and the Flare are significantly different devices. According to Channel Insider:
Avaya's new tablet, which leverages the Avaya Aura 6.0 technologies announced in July, will compete directly with Cisco's entry into the world of tablet computing, but the two offer very different form factors and capabilities. With an 11.6-inch screen, Flare is much bigger than the Cius, which sports a seven-inch screen. Cisco also offers a much longer battery life – eight hours for the Cius compared to three hours for the Flare Experience.
The Yankee Group's Zeus Kerravala has an insightful column at No Jitter. There is plenty of room in town for both devices and, indeed, others. Kerravala implicitly makes the point that the devices have different target audiences by identifying three areas – high-end retail, health care and executive collaboration – for which the Flare seems particularly well suited.
