Apple's iPhone and Cisco's Blog Page

I'm not following CES that closely, but the iPhone news with Apple is pretty big. It's getting tons of much-needed attention, and I'm not going to add another post about how cool it is, and what it means for all the other mobile device vendors. A good starting point on this would Tom Keating's post from this morning, which ranks very high on Google, so he got a good jump on this one.

There's lots to talk about just on the name. I just love how it works both ways - the iPhone for the iPod set, and IP phone for the VoIP crowd. The wrinkle, of course, is that Cisco has owned the iPhone name since 1996, so the interesting story is how Apple has come to use it now, and I'll leave that for others to tell. And just to complicate matters, Cisco launched its own iPhone product family under the Linksys brand last month.

All I want to add here is a blogger angle - it's peripheral to the story, but it's another step along the way for how blogs are playing a more important role in the dissemination of news.

During Cisco's C-Scape analyst conference last month, I posted about how they have set up a corporate blog and that they are embracing new media to be more accessible and reach the online community. They were nice enough to invite me to post there, and I'm definitely one of the early adopters supporting their blog initiative.

Regarding Apple's use of the iPhone name, Cisco made a brief public statement yesterday. I see that this statement has also been posted to their blog page. It's just a neutral comment, so there's nothing to read into what's being said. However, I just find it noteworthy that Cisco is using blogs as part of the mix to get their side of the story out. It's not much of post, but it's a start, and I expect their blog will take on more of a profile as it evolves.


Technorati tags: Cisco, Jon Arnold, Apple, iPhone, Tom Keating