Linksys iPhone Is Still Out There

We all know about the iPhone from Apple that hit the market in June 2007, but chances are you've nearly forgotten about the other iPhone... the one made by Linksys as an excuse to maintain the trademark they technically own. Where is it now?

Believe it or not, it hasn't completely dropped off the radar. According to Wired, the Linksys "iPhone" is still out there, and has even received some good reviews, despite having dropped into obscurity.

Piper Jaffray predicts that Apple will sell around 3.5 million iPhones in 2007. At the same time, Linksys is (not surprisingly) refusing to disclose sales. According to sales numbers from Amazon, the best selling model of the Linksys iPhone (the CIT400) ranks at #742 on Amazon's sales list.

Nonetheless, the two companies are still getting along fine and relations remain good. "There's no bad blood," said Linksys spokesperson Karen Sohl. "We enjoy working with Apple."

In the February settlement between the two companies, there was mention of interoperability, but no further signs of it have been seen. "It's ongoing," Ms. Sohl said. "We're looking at having interoperability, but no details of the specifics have been announced yet."

Not surprisingly, the phenomenal success of the Apple iPhone has made it difficult for the Linksys iPhone to maintain it's image (let alone create one).

"It serves only to confuse people," said Mike Olson with Piper Jaffray. "When you're building a category around technology that consumers don't fully understand, like VOIP, naming a product after something hugely successful in another category will only confuse people fur

[via Wired]