Because it serves as a virtual desktop, it brings Cisco’s Quad, as well as Show and Share into the mix. Quad is a highly flexible user interface that serves as a repository for all the widgets, gadgets, applets or feeds that can be packed into a personal portal. Cisco Show and Share is positioned as a “social video community” platform which, as the name implies, provides a mechanism for employees to share videos to support the projects that they are working on with a broader team.

Cisco calls Cius an “enterprise tablet”, which differentiates it from the Apple iPad (while taking advantage of many of the technical attributes that are iPad-like). For instance, the ability to access an enterprise’s secure VPN (virtual private network) is baked in at the factory. Many of the features support quick and seamless transitions from the Cius’s “virtual desktop” to an employees physical desktop in support of mobile employees.

From a competitive standpoint, it is a nice, pre-emptive strike by Cisco against not just Apple, but any incursions by makers of Windows boxes, like Dell or Lenovo, but especially HP. Cisco is also making a bold appeal to the Android developer community by inviting them into the Cisco Developer Network (CDN).

CDN may not rival the iTunes AppStore, but building apps that conform to API’s that can be dropped into Quad and displayed on the Cius out in the wild should be a provocative challenge to Web app developers around the world.

Addendum: Cisco told the trade press that the device will be generally available in “early 2011″. It will be equipped with both front-facing and rear-facing cameras. It will connect with peripherals wirelessly through Bluetooth (in addition to WiFi) and physically through USB ports. Finally, the targeted street price is “less than $1,000.

Greg Sterling has an interesting angle on the competitive impact Cius may have on Rim’s plans to introduce a tablet here.

So what are people going to do with this yet-to-be revealed triumph in mobile computing and communications. A survey conducted among over 550 of the 19,000 developers registered with Appcelerator shows great expectations among the folks that will make the device truly useful. Ninety percent of the respondents said that they would have an app out for the Apple tablet within a year. Compared to alternatives, the device rates third behind the iPhone and Android, but ahead of (in order of “Highly Interested”) Blackberry, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile and Symbian.

When thinking of the category of app that respondents would develop, there is (thankfully) a marked shift away from “Games” to place “Busines/Productivity” at the top of the list of apps most likely to be developed. Entertainment ranked second, followed by Social Networking, Educations and (then) Games. Appcelerator compares these aspirational statements with the share represented by iPhone downloads where Games rank first, followed by Entertainment, Books, Education and Travel.

The enthusiasm of the developer cohort reflects the depth of interest in the new device and its capabilities. The elevation of Business/Productivity and Social Networking as major application areas reflects anticipated breadth in the services to be offered. Neither guarantees success for the tablet computer, which is a type of device that has languished since the introduction of the Dynabook by Alan Kay back in 1972. It was a good (and visionary) idea then. It is a great (and totally doable) concept now.

What’s different. Components are less expensive. Communications bandwidth is faster and more readily available (although Apple’s networking strategy has yet to be revealed). The general public’s understanding and acceptance of the touchscreen (with our without multi-touch) is not in question. There is a surfeit of digitized content, applications and capabilities. The developer community stands ready to deliver new applications. The iTunes platform stands ready to distribute and bill for new apps, upgrades and updates. Most importantly, customers on campuses, inside business enterprises and hanging around at home are waiting breathlessly for the next shiny thing from Apple.

This is not going to be John Sculley taking the stage, wielding an unimpressive handheld and saying “The Newton is Here!”, as a few hundred were airdropped onto the desktops of business leaders (who had no clue what they were and what they might be good for). Steve Jobs will be showing off one or more members of a family of devices that the impatient world has been waiting for. And believe me, if Google is able to deliver VoIP over the Web through the locked down iPhone distribution system so that people-in-the-know can read their voice mail, any number of solutions providers are looking forward to getting their goods ‘on the glass’ of Apple’s happy, shiny new object.

Get ready to witness Recombinant Communications at its best as Apple’s ‘empty slate’ captures the imagination of developers and end-users alike. They will then take turns defining and assembling new solutions that transform each blank screen into personal portals into better searching, shopping, traveling, gaming and otherwise entertaining themselves.