According to various news sources (including "The Mercury News") this morning, the great debate over the name "iPhone" is finally over. The debacle began late last year, when Cisco released a VOIP device it called the iPhone. The debate peaked again at MacWorld in January, when Steve Jobs marched on stage and presented Apple's long-anticipated product with the same name. It's been pretty harsh on both sides, with ardent Apple defenders decrying the lawsuit as frivolous and claiming that Apple's trademark for the iPhone name abroad was stronger than Cisco's ownership here in the United States. Apple detractors lauded Cisco for standing up to Apple and challenging what they perceived as another example of Apple's legal aggression, especially in the wake of Apple's lawsuits against other companies over use of the word "iPod" in their own product names and trademarks.
All in all, the argument drew a lot of fire and heated emotions, but one thing is absolutely clear: It came to perhaps the most predictable yet anticlimactic conclusion possible, an amicable settlement by both parties.
Apple and Cisco announced that they would share the name "iPhone," Apple using it for its new smartphone due on store shelves later this summer, and Cisco using the name for their Linksys-branded VOIP phone for home networks. The two stated that they would settle their differences and work together to make their products more interoperable, and that they would collaborate in areas like consumer and enterprise communications and security, without releasing any further details of the agreement.
Many people, myself included, thought that Apple would have to pay Cisco a bucket of money to go away about the trademark and let the iPhone sell in peace, but it looks like that wasn't necessary; apparently Apple has something more valuable to offer Cisco than cash, and Cisco was willing to roll over legally for something other than money. At the same time, Apple has to deal with not owning the trademark exclusively (which doesn't seem to be much of a problem since the company was planning on going to market without it), and Cisco has given up its legal ground if it ever wants to go back on the deal. The details of the deal, however, are yet to be revealed, and they may never be. (I'm not the only person who thought that Apple and Cisco would share the trademark--even a lawyer agreed with me.)
Some folks have speculated that this means that there will be some compatibility between Apple's iPhone and Linksys's iPhone, but I doubt that's the case. I think we might see some Cisco- or Linksys-branded equipment using Apple's new 802.11n Airport Extreme hardware that's been getting rave reviews, and alternatively that Apple might start including Cisco networking chipsets in upcoming Macintosh models. Additionally, I expect to see some serious collaboration between Apple's Mac OS X Server/XServe groups and Cisco's enterprise networking folks. Another thing that might come out of the deal is an Apple/Cisco partnership on security. All of these things can only eventually mean good things for both Apple and Cisco customers, especially those looking forward to the iPhone this year.
Even so, this particular legal battle wound up faster than I anticipated for Apple. But more often than not, when it comes to the business of making money, cooler heads and larger profit potential prevailed over rival fandoms and emotional impulses.
Post by Alan Henry
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February 24, 2007 2:44 AM
It's a shame that Alan doesn't understand what these companies do. Cisco/Linksys have their own partnerships for wireless chipsets and Apple not only doesn't make their own products here (thank you, Broadcom), but they're notoriously end-user-oriented. Also, Cisco doesn't make "networking chipsets" that Apple could put into their machines.... It's sad that this is one of the only analyses of this topic presently and its as thin as could be....
February 24, 2007 5:33 PM
Bob - forgive my attempt to simplify the complexities of networking technologies, as it may have come off as though I don't understand the marketplace. Naturally neither Cisco nor Apple have cleanrooms where they're etching the wafers themselves and designing the circuitry themselves, but what I'm referring to directly is that the two companies will decide to work with one another to share information on their suppliers, the technologies that their partner companies, like Broadcom on the Apple side, as well as Orinoco and such, with one another to develop better technologies in the long run.
There's a lot to be said for sharing supply chain data and to develop relationships between companies along each firm's supply chains - so while Apple's hardware partners in developing technologies like the Airport Extreme is getting rave reviews, it may be exceptionally valuable for Cisco to understand who worked with them on the product and how they might be able to tap into those same supplier and design base companies - that's what I meant, but naturally don't say for sake of trying to keep the analysis as clean and accessible to those who naturally don't have the interest in a niche part of the news as you obviously do. Congrats on honing in on it, but I assure you, I most definitely understand how the process works. :)
Aside from that, there's more to the puzzle than just the hardware suppliers, testers, and hardware designers and developers here, there's also the software and firmware element as well that could very easily be a valuable element for both companies to share, and I believe they certainly will. This isn't just two companies unlocking the doors to one another's cleanrooms, and it's regrettable that you might have taken it as being so lean, but a whole world of collaboration between multi-source providers and multiple companies and partners along the supply and value chains for each of these two companies. It would very much make for something more valuable than a trademark buyout, but naturally, the entire analysis of the two companies' network resources and technologies and what the two could learn and share from and with one another with a strong partnership would easily fill a whole other article. One that may well need to be written to completely understand the entire partnership. Even so, this is just one element of the news and of the merger in general, so I highly doubt the entire analysis suffers for lack of the fleshing out of this particular point.
February 24, 2007 5:40 PM
Ack - my mistake in using the word "merger" in the place of "partnership" at the end there; for some reason I have the Sirius/XM merger on the brain as well.
An additional point I think it worth making to perhaps add some fat to a "thin" analysis for Bob's sake: Cisco has its own partnerships and the Linksys brand of consumer networking products that so far in many ways have been inaccessible to the Macintosh community and not particularly under the big Apple development and testing tent. Wouldn't Apple stand a great deal to gain by having information on the development and research that Cisco's consumer networking firm is up to? Additionally, I still strongly believe that Apple's enterprise groups that work on the XServe and Mac OS X Server software will have a great deal to stand to gain from letting Cisco in; Cisco is already a market leader in networking technologies and equipment, and Apple could easily gain an egde by knowing which direction their research and development is headed. Cisco, on the other hand, wins from the partnership because Apple very well could use their same partners and suppliers for Linksys equipment (or alternatively come straight to them, forsaking their own supply chain) for future Airport technologies. I'd love to hear more thoughts on those possibilities! Bob: any ideas? :)
April 23, 2007 4:17 AM
Do somebody knows if i can use the iPhone (Version 1.0) in Europe also? What is the basic charges for AT&T per month? Can i buy the iPhone in usa without domicile in America? Thanks for answer. bye
October 6, 2007 5:43 AM
Hello,
You can buy iphone - info.de at ebay.de! Its a good German page about iphone!
Greetings
October 11, 2007 12:36 PM
I think it's a good idea, except the plan is too expensive for me! :)
October 19, 2007 1:36 PM
I've been using different tools for the last ten years, but these tips were just mind bogglingly brilliant.
November 6, 2007 2:24 AM
tested the iphone! best phone ever
November 15, 2007 5:04 PM
Very nice article. I really liked it a lot and it gave me a few good pointers about th iphone.
January 6, 2008 5:48 PM
I got it! The new Iphone - its realy great! I love it!
January 6, 2008 8:02 PM
beatiful iphone ;)
April 3, 2008 3:49 AM
I love this gadget!
May 20, 2008 2:00 PM
Great and excellent article it's realy helpful. Thanks again.
May 23, 2008 1:35 PM
Great and excellent article it's realy helpful. Thanks again.
July 10, 2008 8:50 AM
Maybe there's something a little bigger. Imagine a phone, like the iPhone, that works on CISCO's VOIP software AND a Cisco/Apple Voip Network/site like Skype.
In other words, you can make FREE calls to anyone on the Apple/Cisco Voip Social Media Community VOIP Service (yes, something probably as long as that). Can you imagine the amount of people who would sign up? Apple would have created its own Mobile Network in the twinkling of an eye, and added some significant hoo-ha to get people to buy the iPhone. You're not just getting a phone, you're getting a whole alternative GLOBAL network.