So today the iPhone was officially announced, not quite what a lot of people had expected (My previous Apple and iPhone post).
Quite fairly Linksys, owned by Cisco who acquired a company that had apparently registered the trademark iPhone in the nineties, is behind the real iPhone. This iPhone might have come as a rather disappointing surprise for many of you, as there is something about Apple’s design and prestige that other companies struggle to achieve. Personally I was more humorously amused, in addition it makes me wonder what will the consumers be expecting from Apple now?
Before appearing negative to Linksys’ iPhone, I must admit it actually in a way seems a little cool, except for selling out their VOIP’ing integration to Skype. Linksys’ iPhone family consists of Cordless Internet Telephones, that require a computer interface, and Wireless Internet Phones (WIP), that allow calls over accessible WiFi networks. The WIP phones are the ones that are more interesting, which allow you to view web content. In addition their top-model WIP330 runs Windows Mobile OS, and supports multimedia. However this is not very different from several phones on the market today, that offer WiFi options as well support for regular cell carriers.
On the down side there is no initial support for emergency calls. And you are still dependent on Wi-Fi coverage, something thats not necessarily always a free service yet.
I am so NOT tempted by any of the VoIP / Wireless phones on the market right now.
For a number of reasons, but principally because I’m waiting for the standards to settle down, mature and cooperate.
So far, Skype have the lead in VoIP, but they’re not too interested in the open standards for VoIP, which is a shame.
However, if enough smaller players all go standards compliant (which is the way to go these days) their signal to Skypes noise will force them to play nice and make the right call .. badum!
Personally, I’m glad the iPhone name has been gazzumped. Maybe now we’ll see the Apple marketing people earn their pay cheque for the coming quarter…
I actually use voip at home, but with a local Norwegian company that essentially gives you the same services as your regular phone company. It’s cheap and works well, but then again its restricted to the regular telephone net. Since I have iChat and other possibilities, I will also be patiently waiting for something to come.
More weird stuff: eBay auction for a rather interesting phone