We got an iPhone...but not from Apple!

Dec 19, 2006 09:00 GMT  ·  By

Yesterday I was expecting to hear something new about the iPhone, since some previous rumors were saying that the device [admark=1]should be announced. Today I was stunned to find out that the iPhone was launched, but... Apple is not the company that did it! How in the world is that possible? Well...let's try to find out, shall we?

More sources published articles about this unexpected event that caused a lot of people to stare at their monitors in amazement, just like I did today. After writing about the iPhone from Apple so many times and hearing so many rumors about it... Linksys, a Cisco Systems division, comes and introduces a family of Voice over IP devices called exactly "iPhone". Snap! Just like that - no rumors, no previous announcements, just... unbelievable!

Anyway, you don't have to worry, because Apple's iPhone will come out as expected, in the first half of the next year, and the only problem is that its name will be different, despite the fact that the company owns the iPhone.org domain name and has already filed for trademarks on the term at overseas trademark offices.

Despite Apple's efforts, it seems that Cisco has claimed ownership of the iPhone mark for the past ten years and said that plans are to use this name as part of a larger strategic vision that concerns networked homes. The new line of iPhone devices integrates popular messaging clients like Skype and Yahoo! Messenger with Voice, and the seven models introduced yesterday go from iPhone Cordless Internet Telephony Kit, priced at 79.99$, up to iPhone Wireless-G IP Phone that sells for 369.99$.

These being said, I will move on with a strange dizziness in my head and one big question (and, of course, a new source of rumors): what name will Apple's iPhone have now?