Cisco has revealed that it will no longer invest in the Cius, the business-focused tablet device it first unveiled in 2010.

The network equipment manufacturer cited its own recent research into "bring your own device" initiatives, which found that 95% of organisations allow employee-owned devices in the office, while 36% provide full support for employee-owned devices.

"Based on these market transitions, Cisco will no longer invest in the Cisco Cius tablet form factor, and no further enhancements will be made to the current Cius endpoint beyond what’s available today," wrote OJ Winge, senior vice president at the company’s TelePresence division in a company blogpost. "However, as we evaluate the market further, we will continue to offer Cius in a limited fashion to customers with specific needs or use cases."

The Cius is an Android-based tablet device, focused on business collaboration. It comes with an optional docking station that converts it into a desktop video phone. Cisco has not revealed how many of the devices have been sold.

Winge said that Cisco’s focus will now be delivering its collaboration software offerings, such as web conferencing service WebEx and unified communications platform Jabber. to any device required. "We’re seeing tremendous interest in these software offerings," he said.

In the three months ending 28 April 2012, Cisco’s collaboration revenues were flat year-on-year at just over $1 billion.

This performance was not as good as the company had expected, CEO John Chambers said at the time. “We are putting an aggressive action plan in place with specific focus on our sales execution. Part of this challenge is market-driven and part of it is our need to execute more effectively.”