Cisco and Apple bury iPhone hatchet, Quantum sharpens it

by: admin Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

Rating: whet stones

Cisco Systems and Apple have agreed to share the iPhone name, although it’s not clear what this might mean, beyond the two muttering about interoperable products at some future date. The speculation is that this is likely to mean they collaborate on getting video into the home via IP.

Apple’s Steve Jobs has a highly individual management style whereas, with John Chambers at the helm, Cisco has proved exceedingly good at assimilating companies to stay ahead of the game. How the two will work together remains to be seen – the companies they head have very different cultures indeed. Cisco is all button-down shirts whereas Mr Jobs shuns them altogether and hasn’t been seen wearing a tie in years. Corporate vs chic.

Although Cisco has dropped all legal proceeding concerning Apple and the iPhone, apparently British touch-sensor Quantum Research Group is still considering taking legal action over the touch screen technology used in the iPhone.

Quantum says it invented proximity sensing technology, a feature of the iPhone which means the device can ‘tell’ if it is held up to the ear for phone calls. Quantum says it invented charge transfer technology for proximity sensing and is examining how Apple achieved this in the iPhone.

Turns out that Quantum is already suing Apple over a patent infringement of its charge transfer technology which the company says Apple used in the wheel control of its iPod Nano. The legal action started in December 2005 and is still rumbling on. Apple has refuted the claim and launched a counter legal attack on Quantum.

Quantum’s technology is used, legally, by companies including Samsung and Sony.