Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Tag: Steve Jobs (Page 3 of 4)

CES Post 8: Whoa! Cisco Sues Apple

Well, I guess it’s one more post from the airport. Cisco just sued Apple over the iPhone name, according to this Wall Street Journal alert that just hit my in-box here in the sports bar:

TECHNOLOGY ALERT from The Wall Street Journal — Jan. 10, 2007 — Cisco sued Apple for trademark infringement over the “iPhone” name Apple chose for its new cellphone, unveiled yesterday. Cisco obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000, and had been in talks with Apple over rights to the name.

“Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco’s iPhone name,” said Mark Chandler, Cisco’s general counsel. “There is no doubt that Apple’s new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission.”

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I was just talking about this situation with some guys last night at the Blog Business Summit party. I said Podtech had reported a source told them Apple had reached some sort of licensing agreement with Cisco for the name. Guess they were wrong!

I said I still didn’t understand why Cisco did a PR announcement of their iPhone line a few weeks ago, if they were in fact negotiating with Apple to let them have the name. One guy I was talking with last night said the December announcement was obviously them posturing to pressure Apple in paying more for the name — that is, to actually raise a higher awareness of the name being associated with Cisco, in an attempt to hold up Apple for more bucks. I said back in late December that I thought it was a really lame, kind of rushed-looking marketing intro. But, at that moment last night, I thought that guy might be onto something. He said they probably reached some 11th-hour agreement with Jobs since then for Apple to buy the rights to the name. But then I still wondered how Cisco would retract, or correct, that recent introduction of their iPhone product line…

Alas, this guy’s conjecture was wrong, too! The parties obviously didn’t reach any agreement at all. And it just amazes me that His Royal Steveness would have the cajones to go on stage yesterday and tout this name as his own! But, then, I guess I shouldn’t be. He’s basically just saying, “Screw you guys, then — sue me.” Obviously, he knows the market wants Apple to have this name, feels it’s theirs, and somehow this overwhelming force will overcome all.

This will get interesting, for sure. Unfortunately, we may never know how much he pays Cisco to give up the name. But I am definitely NOT betting against Jobs prevailing here.

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CES Post 7: Winding Down

This will be my final post from the BlogHaus, at about 11:00 am on Wednesday. It’s been great. Now sitting here with Tom Hawk of Zooomr and Andru Edwards of Gear Live and some of his people, who are all busy publishing. (Tom told me he won’t make his 1000 photo upload goal, but he’s halfway there. He only uploads really, really nice pix, though. Somebody else just said there are 30,000 photos now up in Flicker tagged CES 2007. Yikes! I did a bunch myself, mostly of the BlogHaus.)

Had a great time last night at the Blogger Business Summit party — met a lot of interesting folks. Then back to the BlogHaus, which was going at full capacity, Robert Scoble holding court in one corner, pizza in another. And lots in between. One new person I met was a guy who’s launching the first trade show for the the blog world….called, guess what? BlogWorld! Sounds like a serious endeavor, from a guy who’s run lots of successful shows — Rick Calvert is his name. It’s scheduled for November — in Vegas! Don’t know if there’s a site up yet, but looks like it’ll be at www.BlogWorldExpo.com.

Anyway, I’m going off to some other business soon here, then heading for the airport about 3:00. Just picked up all my email, and learned I missed the cut for a lunch with Guy Kawasaki in Minneapolis on the 19th, before his big talk at the U of MN. Apparently there were only 7 slots at the table, and my friend Gary Smaby tried to get me on the list, but too many muckety-mucks already, I guess… 🙂 [Thanks for trying, anyway, Gary.] But I’ll sure be there for the talk following, which is already sold out.

Guy should be very happy the temps are finally dropping in Minnesota (lows below zero this weekend, I hear) — because, as you may recall, what got him to our state in January was the National Pond Hockey Championships, which are held on one of our city lakes. And people were getting real nervous they wouldn’t have ice, with our temps hovering around 40 for so long. Sounds like the ice will be real hard by the time Guy gets here! Anyway, looking forward to seeing Guy again, hearing his talk, and seeing him play hockey.

Cheers from Vegas! It was a good trip…

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CES Post 6: Apple Fever Takes Over

Apple has sucked all oxygen out of the consumer electronics space again today, with an absolutely over-the-top keynote by Steve Jobs. It was fun sitting here at the BlogHaus this morning and following along with it all of it at MacRumorsLive and Engadget — which were the only good ways to do it, since Apple doesn’t do any live video or audio feed. Iphone_1 I was sitting next to Andru Edwards, the CEO of GearLIve Media of Seattle, who’s been updating his very impressive site all morning, while he has about five people continuously roaming the show for the news. He and one of his guys and myself were commenting as the keynote went along. Big fun. We can’t wait to get our hands on that iPhone! PodTech reports in a post today that the product will, in fact, be called by that name after Cisco does some sort of licensing deal with Apple, allowing it to use their trademark. (See my previous post on that.)

What struck me about sitting here in the BlogHaus conference room this morning — enjoying this big pipe we’re all on and following along with every word Jobs says — was the weird timing of the Bill Gates keynote from yesterday running in silence on the large screen in the next room. Interesting juxtaposition: two keynotes, world’s apart…. 🙂

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CES Post 3: Early Morning at BlogHaus

Well, I was the first to arrive this morning at 7:30 am, just as the housekeeping crew was finishing up. Only me alone with the breakfast buffet and a tub full of beer on ice at the bar (no, please….). Feeling good that I bailed last night about 10:30, I plugged into the T1 in the conference room, grabbed some much-needed caffeine, and started catching up on the buzz online. Bloghaus6 Seems the reaction to the Gates keynote yesterday wasn’t all that great — a lot of the same themes as last year. (But as Robert Scoble said to me later, at least everything worked this time…..ha!) More of the buzz online this morning seemed to be focused on how Macworld is already starting to suck away the oxygen from CES — an event that will draw only about one-fifth as many people.

About ten minutes later, a two-person video crew from PodTech arrived, followed closely by head PodTech dude, John Furrier. He said he and the crew were headed off to Cisco and lots of other interviews today. Other PodTech people started to arrive, and I heard the Haus was rocking till at least 5:00 am…..ooo, ouch. Glad my head is clear.

I’m gonna monitor the live coverage of what’s happening at the keynotes and on the showfloor from right here and do some blogging. The PodTech site is one good place for you to keep up on stuff ongoing, and note it also includes a page where all the BlogHaus-registered bloggers’ posts are aggregated. Events for me today include the Aussie companies’ press conference at the Hilton, followed by Yahoo press event/luncheon close by, and Disney CEO Robert Iger’s keynote at 4:30 at the Venetian (only because he might drop a hint of what’s to come in his largest shareholder’s keynote tomorrow at Macworld). Then the Showstoppers event this evening, and back here more for at the BlogHaus after that. Hey, this is work, people! Cheers for now…

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Predictions for Macworld

Okay, while I’m on the plane to CES, I thought I’d write about — what else? — the next big show after this one… 🙂 It’s actually an even more significant event — in news terms, anyway. I’m of course talking about Macworld. Wish I could travel to that one, too, but I just can’t afford to be away that long from work and other matters back home. Stevejobs Nonetheless, I’m sure anxiously following all the talk about what will be announced later next week in SF by his royal supremeness, Chairman Steve. And I’m sure I’ll be spending some time in the next few days in Vegas talking with people about what they think is coming.

But my favorite prediction so far is from my longtime colleague, designer Randy Geise, who heads GeiseDesign in the Twin Cities. He’s a huge Apple follower and a fanatically loyal Mac enthusiast, and I’ve found he gets these predictions right more often than not. Here’s his take on what’s we can expect this time:

“Ok, I’m going to go out on a limb about MacWorld…

“I don’t think the iPhone will be ready and I think Jobs would more than likely do a special event for that like he did for iPod and other major hardware introductions. In addition to a whole lot of things, including software and the iTV, I’m betting he has finalized the exclusive agreement with The Beatles, and his ‘one more thing’ will be a limited edition Beatles iPod (ordered blank or pre-filled with all The Beatles’ songs, including some we haven’t heard). Like the ‘red’ iPods, where a certain amount goes to charity, this iPod will be tied into breast cancer charities (since Linda died from that). I don’t think McCartney will make a live appearance but will do a transatlantic iChat with Jobs. This will also tie into the iTV, as all the Beatles’ movies will be available on iTunes and ready to be streamed to your HDtv via iTV.”

What Randy thinks would be “the perfect MacWorld keynote” this time is the following sequence of events:
1) Numbers/performance review.
2) Updated iLife with each app getting something, especially more podcasting features.
3) Updated iWork with spreadsheet and database added (replaces Appleworks).
4) Leopard review/preview/date.
5) iTV intro, shipping now or shortly.
6) Announcement of the exclusive Beatles deal including a Beatles iPod, bare or loaded with every Beatles song ever recorded. Jobs gets McCartney on iChat for an interview.
7) He gets up, announces “one more thing,” pulls out an iPhone, continues his live video chat with Paul, where he announces that, in addition to songs, all The Beatles’ movies are now available for download and streaming over iTV.
8) He demos the phone features and announce pricing and availability.

Says Randy: “I don’t really think The Beatles thing is that far-fetched. From what I’ve read, the whole British copyright law has changed and shortened the lifespan — so, in order to monetize their portfolio, The Beatles have to get their stuff out in wide circulation before it hits the public domain. And there have been rumors, for quite some time, that Jobs has a deal.”

Hope you’re right, Randy — hey, I’m ready for some iBeatles! We’ll know in less than a week….

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