Will Linksys iPhone Take a Bite out of Apple?
It turns out the much-hyped, much-awaited iPhone is nine years old already. Linksys, a division of networking giant Cisco, has released a VoIP device called the iPhone, causing anyone with a keyboard to claim that Cisco has beaten Apple to the punch. Cisco has owned the iPhone trademark since 2000, when it purchased a firm called Infogear that introduced an iPhone as early as 1997.
In recent months, rumors, gossip, guesswork, and clothesline conversations over Apple’s cell phone plans have reached a high pitch, perhaps highest when Digg.com founder Kevin Rose claimed to divulge inside information between swigs from an unlabeled bottle on the Diggnation vodcast (that is, video podcast). His number one insight? Apple’s phone was “small as s—,” he said.
That Apple has yet to announce a cell phone, admit plans for a cell phone, or comment on a cell phone of any kind, much less one that combines its iPod music player with call-making capacity, was a fact often ignored as the blogosphere claimed the Cisco iPhone might dilute Apple’s well-known branding scheme.
Apple’s product line includes not only the iPod but also iTunes and the still-popular iBook line of notebook computers as well, not to mention the iSight video camera and iLife media software.
What’s in a Name?
“I don’t think the buzz around the potential for an iPod phone — or an Apple phone, or a phone from Apple — had anything to do with the name,” said Avi Greengart of research firm Current Analysis.
What did cause the buzz? Apple’s self-imposed policy of secrecy is one catalyst, according to Greengart. “Nobody knows what they’ll announce until they announce it because they’ve done an excellent job of keeping things quiet.”
So-called experts and talking heads of every stripe have rushed to fill the void left by Steve Jobs’ shut lips, guessing…
