Apple’s iPhone brand is a household word now, but according to a story revealed on Monday by 9to5Mac, a former Apple advertising executive said the company was in a legal battle with Cisco in 2007 because it already owned the trademarked name IPHONE.
The iPad that wasn’t
During the legal issues with Cisco over the iPhone moniker, other suggestions for a new product name were floated at Apple. Among the most popular were Telepod , Mobi , Tripod, and even iPad, which was later adopted for Apple’s tablet computer.
Jumping the gun
Ken Segall, a former Apple advertising consultant, said Cisco sued Apple in 2007 for unauthorized use of the iPhone brand name before an official agreement could be reached by the two companies. Cisco owned the trademark name of IPHONE for its proprietary VoIP phone.
Cisco and Apple later settled their dispute by agreeing to both use the iPHONE name cooperatively. But Apple decided to hedge its bets by coming up with alternative phone names just in case the deal fell through.
Segall noted:
"The funny thing is that all these names actually were considered and iPad was in fact one of them; that's the most amazing [thing]. Had they called the iPhone an iPad, then who knows what the iPad would be."
Via 9to5Mac
via Examiner National Edition Gadgets & Tech Channel Articles http://www.examiner.com/article/would-you-have-bought-an-iphone-if-it-was-named-the-telepod-or-mobi-instead?cid=roadrunner