Cisco doesn't care because Cisco isn't competing directly with Apple here. This is a device that fits in with the rest of their VoIP/Video device offerings. I bet a lot of what it can do will also be available for the iPad, when v2 hits with a camera. So you can use the Cius and dock it with a Cisco VoIP phone or load an app on an iPad that you manage yourself.

This is not an iPad killer. It's not meant to be one. I'm at Cisco Live right now and all the Cisco geeks are wetting themselves over it...but it's not even a competitor to the iPad. It's a niche product to work with Cisco's other technologies. Hospitals are going nuts over the iPad and Cisco wants a play in that market. They want these customers to buy the Cius just like they do Cisco wireless handsets now. Look at the promo pics, it's docked in a Cisco phone.

Different markets.

No. I'm buying an experience. I just used my iPad at Cisco Live all day. It worked great..it's exactly what I bought it for. I've owned other tablet devices and they sucked. The current Android offerings do the same. Right now there is no better OVERALL PACKAGE in tablet form than the iPad. Sure, it may not have 8 USB ports or 3 SD slots, but it works really damn well and that's what people want. Geeks want speeds and feeds, users want a tool that just works.

You are correct. The F9 doesn't connect to the net. It talks to the connection kit on a PC. BTW, the connection kit sucks. It's pretty much useless.

...Linking to horrible html since 1996.

It's more than just tradition. My experience is more from the petroleum exploration arena, so I'll speak it its terms.

Almost no property owner owns the mineral rights to their land, only the 'surface' rights. The mineral rights (in most cases) were seperated years ago.

Exploration for petroleum involves statistical analysis as well as physical discovery. Physical discovery used to involve guessing, based on prior performance or just a hunch, where there might be oil or gas. These days, there's a lot more technology to be applied. One method involves placing sensitive seismic instruments in a variety of locations. Then large machines called 'thumpers' are put in place to cause deliberate seismic disturbances. The effects of these disturbances and underground interference to them are measured, mapped and analysed using the instrumentation that's scattered about.

This type of physical discovery is not cheap. It consists of:
expensive instruments
expensive machines
well-paid geologists and other crew
paying landowners for use of their land.
costom analysis software
and more

The best ways for a venture like that to make money are to (a) sell the information to mineral rights owners, or (b) use the information to drill for petroleum themselves.

In case (a), making the information available at no charge is contrary to the business plan. In (b), they would need to acquire/lease the necessary mineral rights and it wouldn't pay advertise what they were looking for where.