Cius

The 7-inch Cius is scheduled for a July 31 global release.

The Cius feels thicker and somewhat heavier than other tablets on the market. Cisco officials claim that the extra thickness is needed to provide superior audio for conferencing and the like.

The Cius runs Android 2.2. It also integrates a number of Cisco products into the interface, including Cisco TelePresence, Cisco WebEx meeting applications, Cisco Quad social software and Cisco Jabber messaging.

Once docked, the Cius’ display can port onto a much larger screen.

Here is the Cius docked with a phone.

The Cius emphasizes voice and video, mostly in the service of collaborating long distance with colleagues, in a bid to play off Cisco’s product strengths.

In addition to Android Marketplace, Cisco is offering an AppHQ application ecosystem designed for IT pros seeking to create, manage and deploy tablet applications within the enterprise.

Cisco will allow businesses to host their own private application store within the AppHQ storefront. Those private stores will be customizable down to corporate logos and icons.

In keeping with standards of enterprise security, IT managers will have control over which employees within an organization can download applications, and grant access to those applications based on type, source and category.

Here is the Cius’ social networking at work.