Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is putting the kibosh on its business-class web-based email after only 13 months, claiming that customers are showing more interest in social business and video offerings. 

The shuttering of Cisco Mail suggests that the network gear manufacturer wasn't able to make a serious dent in the hosted email market, which is dominated by Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), notes Cari Tuna at The Wall Street Journal.  Google's Gmail comes with 25 gigabyte mailboxes for $50 per user annually, while Cisco Mail came with five gigabytes for $3.50 to $5 per user annually.

The main reason Cisco provided for closing down its Mail offering is that businesses don't consider email a means of differentiating their approach toward collaboration. "The product has been well received, but we've since learned that customers have come to view their email as a mature and commoditized tool versus a long-term differentiated element of their collaboration strategy," wrote Debra Chrapaty in a post on the company's official blog.

Cisco and Google are "polar opposites," notes Mikael Ricknäs of IDG News Service, and Cisco's business model of identifying new products and services to charge a premium for is at odds with Google's model of commoditizing products and services for the sake of selling ads. "On paper, you can see that Cisco was fighting a losing battle," Ricknäs writes. "Google Apps offers a wider set of services with more storage for less money."

For more:
- see Cari Tuna's article at The Wall Street Journal
- see Debra Chrapaty's post at the Cisco blog
- see Mikael Ricknäs' article at Computerworld

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