An unbranded version of the Cius tablet was on display at an Intel booth on Thursday at the CEA Line Show being held in New York . An Intel spokesman said the tablet would later be updated to include the latest Honeycomb operating system.

The Cisco spokeswoman declined to provide further details about the first Cius units that will ship. Cisco has said that the Cius would have Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities, with 4G support in the future. The device will run Cisco's TelePresence videoconferencing system, WebEx tools and other Cisco applications including Cisco Quad and Cisco Show.

Cisco is also bundling virtual desktop features into the tablet. Earlier this year, the company said the tablet would support virtualization software from VMware and Citrix to run the Windows virtual desktop.

Cisco will compete with enterprise tablet makers such as Hewlett-Packard, which offers the US$799 Slate 500 tablet to customers. Avaya has announced Flare, an Android tablet focused on communication and collaboration tools. Some tablets, notably Apple's iPad, are also gaining traction in enterprises.