The iPhone is a discontinued

internet appliance An Internet appliance is a consumer device whose main function is easy access to Internet services such as World Wide Web, WWW or e-mail. The term was popularized in the 1990s, when it somewhat overlapped in meaning with an information appliance, ...

line introduced by Infogear in 1998 and between 2000 and 2007 manufactured by

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

. It combined the features of a regular phone and a web terminal. The company was later purchased by Cisco and no new products were marketed under the name between 2001 and 2006. At the end of 2006, Cisco rebranded its

Linksys Linksys Holdings, Inc., is an American brand of data networking hardware products mainly sold to home users and small businesses. It was founded in 1988 by the couple Victor Tsao, Victor and Janie Tsao, both Taiwanese immigrants to the United St ...

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

-based phones under the name, shortly before Apple released an

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

of its own. This led to a trademark dispute between the two companies, which was resolved on February 20, 2007.

History

InfoGear iPhone

The first iPhone was released in 1998 by InfoGear Technology Corporation. In 1997, prior to the release of iPhone, Infogear entered into a partnership with Cidco of Morgan Hill, California. The iPhone was an innovative

that featured a sliding keyboard and an LCD

touchscreen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...

that accessed an embedded web browser and an email client. It was one of the first wave of internet appliances, preceding the

I-Opener The i-Opener is a discontinued low-cost internet appliance produced by Netpliance (later known as TippingPoint) between 1999 and 2002. The hardware was sold as a loss leader for a monthly internet service. Because of the low cost of the hardwar ...

3Com Audrey The 3Com Ergo Audrey is a discontinued internet appliance from 3Com. It was released to the public on October 17, 2000, for USD499 as the only device in the company's "Ergo" initiative to be sold. Once connected to an appropriate provider, users ...

and a slew of similar devices from various manufacturers including

Alcatel Alcatel SA was a French industrial conglomerate active between 1963 and 2006. It has roots to ''Compagnie Générale d’Electricité'' (CGE), a conglomerate founded in 1898 as an early state owned cable and telephone equipment company that lat ...

and

Nortel Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It was founded in ...

. Reviewers praised it for offering a simple and "relatively inexpensive" way to access the Internet, but many criticized its size, lack of features, and US $5 per month in addition to the Internet access charge and the purchase price (US $299). Infogear was acquired by

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, m ...

in 2000, On December 18, 2006,

rebranded an existing line of

Voice over IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

internet phone Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

s, as it introduced some additional models. Linksys was acquired by Cisco in June 2003, long after the production of Infogear iPhone had ceased. Unlike its name-sake predecessor, the new iPhone devices use an existing network and proprietary protocols, such as

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

. Rebranding did not involve any feature changes or introduction of new proprietary technology.

Netgear continues the iPhone line under new name

iPhone technology previously sold by Linksys was previously, but no longer, available from

Netgear Netgear, Inc. (stylized as NETGEAR in all caps), is an American computer networking company based in San Jose, California, with offices in about 22 other countries. It produces networking hardware for consumers, businesses, and service provide ...

as the released in 2007 Netgear SPH200D. Handsets for the two are interchangeable. Linksys never sold additional handsets, leaving Linksys CIT400 users with only one handset although the base station for the CIT400/SPH200D supports up to four. The Netgear SPH150D supplemental handset fills that gap.

Models

1997–2001

The first-generation InfoGear iPhone shipped in 1997 and the second in 1999.

2006–2007

Linksys iPhone CIT line (with CIT200, CIT300, CIT310 and CIT400 models), released in 2006, was just a rebranding and facelift of (existing from 2004) Linksys CIT line. This line has a neutral reviews. Linksys iPhone WIP line (with WIP300, WIP320 and WIP330 models) released in the same 2006, but as a new line. This line also has relatively neutral reviews.

Apple iPhone and trademark dispute

On January 9, 2007,

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...

announced that

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

would begin selling its mobile smartphone called

in June of that year. Cisco announced shortly after the announcement that Apple had been in negotiations to use the trademark that Cisco acquired with the purchase of Infogear. However, a day later they announced that they were filing a lawsuit against Apple. Apple and Cisco settled their dispute on February 20, 2007. Both companies will be allowed to use the "iPhone" name in exchange for "exploring interoperability" between Apple's products and Cisco's services and other unspecified terms.''Cisco and Apple Reach Agreement on iPhone Trademark''
, apple.com

References

External links

* {{Cisco Systems Information appliances VoIP hardware Computer-related introductions in 1997 Linksys