Well Monday came and there was an iPhone release, but not by Apple – in a bizzare turn of events Linksys have released some VoIP WiFi phones under the branding “iPhone“.
If Apple had any intention of using the iPhone trademark on their (alleged) upcoming devices they will be stuffed now. With the supposed release date being so near, they will just confuse matters if they use the same name, if that is even legal with copyright laws.
In an earlier post I mentioned that the company who own the iPhone trademark (a VoIP company in the US) had no contact with Apple regarding them using the name although there was a report that Apple had registered the name in the far east for some reason.
From the Linksys site “iPhone and Linksys are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc.” - iPwned!
I think it is a shame that Cisco have chosen to spoiler the release of the Apple devices in this way, but I guess business is business and you can’t buy the press they are getting for their new products.
When the Apple phone device(s) are launched, I very much doubt they will carry the iPhone branding after todays events, so it begs the question what will they be called. I have come up with a weak few but please join in and post some in comments:
- iPod Phone (or iPod Mobile)
- iCall
- iHandy (for all our Germanic readers)
- iCell
- iCommunicator (too long)