Apple and Cisco put an end to their So - What - Are - We - Gonna - Call - Our - New - Phone - Cartesian product - Anyhow ? miniskirt - feud previous Tuesday , by settling a calendar month - old difference over the name of Apple ’s forthcoming iPhone . Judging by the medium reports of the resolution , I expect to flip on the TV this dawn and see former President Jimmy Carter locking helping hand with Steve Jobs and John Chambers and promising peace of mind in our meter . A Google News search for “ Apple Cisco ” turns up2,400 or so story , all of which say basically the same affair :
And really , that was belike how this thing was going to roll up all along . By most accounts , Apple and Cisco were in negotiation over the iPhone nomenclature mighty up until Steve Jobs take the stage at Macworld Expo to unveil the product . Jobs was potential so confident a mickle would get done — or maybe he just did n’t need to make last minute change to his display slew — that he went ahead and used the iPhone name anyway . Cisco , clearly unwilling to concede anything until the last “ i ” had been dotted , probably felt obligated to file a suit just to maintain some level of leverage . And all that prison term , talks continued until they result in the only coherent closing — a reciprocally beneficial closure .
So nothing to see here , right ? Well , passably much — until you consider some of the fine photographic print in the companies’joint announcementof the cessation of hostilities :
People who follow along with Apple ’s assorted legal wranglings — and boy , have those folks had a busy time of it lately , huh?—may recognize this phraseology from settlements past . The fellowship struck a similar conciliatory note when itsettled its patent disputes with Creative Technology — Apple agreed to give the electronics maker $ 100 million , and Apple pose a part of the takings gained if Creative licenses the patent to other party . In plus , Creative became an functionary “ Made for iPod ” vendor — which leave in a clutch of originative - branded speaker systems and dock accouterment displayed during Macworld Expo last calendar month . ( Apple made similar , if vaguer allusions to “ succeeding cooperation ” with The Beatles ’ Apple Corps whenannouncingthatsettlementthis calendar month , but I ’m still waitress on my White Album iTunes downloads . )
iPod accessories are one thing ; security products and enterprise communication theory offering are a much more challenging field . Perhaps that statement about “ research opportunities for interoperability ” was little more than bodied make - nice talking , with Apple and Cisco go their separate ways from this point . However , if John Chambers fall out to join Steve Jobs on point during next January ’s Expo keynote to announce some collectively - developed product , we ’ll acknowledge where the Book of Genesis of that partnership lease property .
At any pace , I ’d love to hear your suggestions for a joint Apple - Cisco offer or whether you reckon this is just a bunch of hot air via press release .
