Cisco and Apple resolve iPhone dispute

Cisco Systems and Apple have agreed to share the "iPhone" name, but both US companies are staying tightlipped about what future products might come from the resulting deal to collaborate on "interoperability" between the companies' products.

Analysts said the settlement announced in California yesterday in Cisco's trademark-infringement lawsuit could help both companies strengthen their positions in the increasingly fierce battle to deliver video and other applications directly to consumers' homes.

Zeus Kerravala, a network infrastructure analyst with Yankee Group, said there are ample opportunities for the companies to dream up collaborative projects to win over consumers.

One possibility, he said, could be a device from Cisco's Linksys division that users call into to record podcasts that are then automatically uploaded to iTunes. Such a product would make it easier to create and disseminate such programmes.

However, he cautioned that both companies need to be willing to share in order to make the partnership work.

"If the two actually can work together, then the combination of the two is obviously more powerful than the two butting heads," he said.

"There's no company out there that understands network service like Cisco. And you could argue no other company understands user experience like Apple."

The Silicon Valley tech giants said they have agreed to dismiss any pending legal actions regarding the iPhone trademark.