OK. It’s hit hit every front page in Christendom in the last 24 hours and with one fell swoop, Jobs was able to eclipse the entire CES show, RIM stock took a huge hit and Cisco has announced its suing Apple for trademark infringement. The iPhone interface has Apple fanboys drooling (yes, myself included) and this has to be the most ingenious reaction…a cutout model of the iPhone that can keep us happy until we can actually get our hands on a shipping model sometime in the next decade. Brilliant.
As a further point, there is an interesting commentary on the Cisco suit by their general counsel, Mark Chandler. It is forthright and answers some of the questions swirling about this strange situation. Those following the swirling iPhone rumours over the past few months (years?) noted that Cisco released a product called iPhone a few weeks back clearly delineating the fact that they owned the rights to the name iPhone. Hence surprise that the product announced yesterday shared this name. But all seemed ok when Steve told us that he expected a settlement with Cisco later that day. The assumption of course being that they just had an i or two to dot. Then today came the suit. The commentary referenced above tells an interesting story.
And if you have a little model of the phone.…then you need the more elabourate packaging for the fake unboxing. A cool product is certainly driving brilliant creativity from the fans.
And one more comment. It didn’t take too long, here’s a little launcher application for the Palm that gives you iPhone interface on your Palm. Again maybe just enough to tine one over until June.