Cisco pitches AppHQ for businesses to complement Cius tablet

Cisco is looking to increase the enterprise appeal of its Cius tablet by offering an application store platform designed specifically for business use.

The company said that its AppHQ service would offer an application marketplace, which can be controlled by administrators to limit and shape access to the company's Android-based tablet.

Tom Puorro, Cisco senior director of product management for collaboration solutions, told V3.co.uk the service is designed to maintain security controls while still offering flexibility for companies of various sizes and markets.

"We didn't have any one customer in mind when we built it," he explained.

"It's about centring control around the IT administrator, but it also has the degree of flexibility that IT organisations are built for."

Part of that flexibility includes a different set of criteria for inclusion into the market. Puorro said that while Cisco will screen AppHQ applications for fraudulent or malicious activity, overall performance and stability will be up to developers and customers to work out.

Additionally, the AppHQ platform will look to distance itself from other Android application services by offering licensing options beyond the one-time download price.

"It allows enterprises to buy in the way they are used to buying software," Puorro said.

"They want to buy enterprise agreements, they want to buy site licenses and they want to buy in bulk with a deeper discount."

Because of the flexible nature of the AppHQ platform, Cisco believes the system could be used in large enterprises to craft custom storefronts and platforms for distributing in-house applications.

Similarly, smaller development firms can better target their audiences by aiming specially-crafted applications at specific industries and AppHQ deployments.

The AppHQ service will be part of a larger campaign by Cisco to enter the mobile business space. The company has pitched its Cius tablet as a platform for both mobile computing tasks and unified communications systems.

In addition to a traditional touch-screen tablet system, the Cius has been equipped with specialised camera and sound equipment to offer HD video conferencing services.