Cisco Systems Inc. may have set July 31 as the day it plans to launch its Android-based Cius tablet, but for customers in Brazil, that wait will be a bit longer. The delay is due to pending approval of the device by Brazil’s national agency of telecommunications, Anatel.
During a June 28 conference call in São Paulo with journalists from around Latin America, Cisco’s senior director of IP communications marketing, Roberto De La Mora, said that Cisco has great expectations for the region. “The adoption will be huge, because they embrace technologies all the time. It has been like this with all solutions we launched,” De La Mora said.
Cius was announced earlier this year, and during the press conference Cisco focused on explaining AppHQ, its applications built specially for the tablet and designed to help IT shops create, manage and deploy tablet apps in their businesses. AppHQ might be the Cisco trump card to compete in a market that already has competitors such as Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Motorola Inc.
In the United States the Cius is set to retail for around $700, a price that could double in some Latin America countries due to taxes. In Brazil the device will be sold through resellers partners and not by carriers such as in the United States.
Cisco has not disclosed sales expectations for the Cius or AppHQ.
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