Is Cisco looking to compete on the consumer front against the iPad?
I have been wondering for a while why there are no Cisco made iPad applications within iTunes besides WebEx. Then I started to think about the event over the last year. Cisco unveils the Cius Android Tablet which I talked about in a prior post, Chambers vs. Jobs, IPad vs. Cius, a battle brewing. Then we had the story on the possible purchase of Skype by Cisco, Cisco making a play for Skype. Vidyo made an announcement that they are going to partner with HP to put their software on HP laptops, HP Teams with Vidyo to Extend Halo to Desktops.
Could it be that the Cisco team realized that if this Cius Android Tablet was going to sell that they had to have Skype? With Skype they could market the product to a broader market and not just enterprise companies. Could this be the reason why there are no Cisco Applications for the IPad beside WebEx? I think they are busy making applications for the Cius Android Tablet and will come out with a Cisco version of ITunes. This makes sense if they are looking at Skype and are going to market this to regular consumers. They could beat Apple to the punch and have video first on a tablet.
But now we have these rumors New IPad 2, will be out for Christmas with Face Time Video. It will be interesting to watch the next move Cisco makes if they buy Skype to compete with Apple on the video front with the consumer using Skype. They could always come up with their own solution for consumer video but with in this short time frame they need Skype and fast.
