Apple, Inc.’s iPhone Wows CES, Brings Lawsuit from Cisco

Steve Jobs’ appearances at the International Consumer Electronics Show are to computer-geeks what Green Day gigs are to punks of all ages – well worth the wait. This time around, the founder of Apple Computers showed off his company’s entry into the cell phone market, the iPhone. It is likely to change the nature of the cell phone as surely as he changed the name of his firm to Apple, Inc., so long at the iPhone name gets passed a lawsuit by Cisco.

Apple’s iPhone has been more than three years in the making, and the cheering at CES was partly appreciation for the device itself and partly the result of pent up anticipation. For $499 and a contract with Cingular, consumers can get an iPhone in June that combines the iPod, cell phone, camera and handheld PDA. It runs an Apple operating system, so viruses are not much of the threat, and its 4 gig hard drive will hold 2,000 songs (much like the iPod Nano).

The interface is vastly different from most cell phones or PDAs. It’s got a 3.5 inch screen and one button. All of the controls are virtual and operated through an advanced touchscreen interface. This makes it sleeker and unique. The big issue is how it stands up to daily wear and tear. Remember the cracked screen problems the iPod had for a while? It may not take that much to turn consumers off. Fingerprints and makeup smudges may do it.

Bill Morelli, an analyst in the cell phone market, told Mobile Tech News, “Apple has changed the dynamics of the handset market just with its entrance. Regardless of the impact the iPhone has in terms of unit sales, the impact on handset design and user interface will be felt for years to come. It is a certainty that devices offering similar design features will start cropping up from other manufacturers, similar to the influx of RAZR imitators that started appearing on the market in the latter half of 2006.”

The one fly in the ointment is Cisco, which has filed a lawsuit because it owns the trademark “iPhone,” and its Linksys division has been shipping internet handsets under that name. Worst case scenario for Apple is a change to “Mac-Iphone,” short for MacIntosh, which it made famous some time ago and which users will shorten further to iPhone. Apple has already convinced the entire world that it’s phone is THE iPhone, and in the end, that’s all that matters.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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