14 DAY TRIAL // When Apple and Cisco agreed to share the iPhone name in February, and dismissed any pending actions regarding the trademark, they also agreed to explore opportunities for interoperability, in the areas of security and communications, both consumer and enterprise. Now, the two companies are exploring a half-dozen ways their products can work together, according Cisco Chief Development Officer Charlie Giancarlo.
Apple's CEO Steve Jobs and Cisco are talking about how to make Apple's iPhone compatible with Cisco's business and consumer equipment. "We're optimistic, but it's still early," Giancarlo, said. Teams from both companies are working together, but the focus is not on making Apple's cellular handset compatible with Cisco's Internet-based home phone. Cisco wants the Apple iPhone to work with its corporate phone systems, Giancarlo said. This partnership would allow users to get the same services, such as instant messaging and teleconferencing, on their Cisco desk phones and Apple iPhones. Cisco's corporate-phone equipment already works with other mobile phones, such as handsets from Nokia Oyj and Motorola Inc. The company, based in San Jose, California, is the world's largest maker of computer-networking equipment and Internet-based corporate phone systems.
But Apple's iPhone is not the core focus of the talks, and both companies are looking at new ways to get their products to work together in the consumer market. Such a partnership could have a lot of potential according to Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Boston-based Yankee Group. "Those two companies historically haven't collaborated all that well," he said. "They could create a very powerful duo. Nobody knows networking like Cisco, and nobody knows user experience like Apple."
However, while the potential is there, there hasn't been enough time for much to come out of it yet. "We're now in the investigation phase," Charlie Giancarlo said. "We'll know more in a couple months."