If the goal is anything other than using the device in conjunction with Cisco communications platforms, there are better products.

The same goes for Avaya's that was built to support its Avaya Flare Experience conferencing platform that has to be tied into an Avaya Aura communications infrastructure. (Avaya DVD costs $2,000, which includes the Flare software.)

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"They are intimately tied to their own set of ," says Andrew Davis, an analyst with Wainhouse Research, about the Avaya and Cisco tablets.

Avaya's device has a slick user interface for setting up videoconferences and sharing data, he says, and the Cius similarly supports Cisco telepresence and Quad collaboration.