Opinion: It’s time for Apple to return to the negotiating table and hammer out an iPhone partnership with Cisco Systems. In fact, municipal and university CIOs should demand an Apple-Cisco relationship. Here’s why. Opinion: It’s time for Apple to return to the negotiating table and hammer out an iPhone partnership with Cisco Systems. In fact, municipal and university CIOs should demand an Apple-Cisco relationship. Here’s why.
Sure, the iPhone is a huge hit. And consumer-related problems have been minimal so far. But as more iPhones enter corporate settings, we’re bound to see unexpected issues pop up. Just ask Duke University, which is working overtime to troubleshoot an apparent network issue with iPhones.
Will the iPhone cause similar problems on municipal wireless networks? I can’t say for sure, but stronger relationships between Apple and networking vendors would provide some peace of mind.
Cisco, you’ll recall, has tried numerous times to ink an iPhone partnership with Apple. The good-faith negotiations initially involved Apple’s use of the iPhone name, which Cisco had trademarked. By mid-2007, I expected some sort of unified communications partnership between Apple and Cisco.
But Apple didn’t deliver the goods. The iPhone team has largely ignored the enterprise space, preferring to focus on consumer opportunities.
Rather than wait for Apple to target the enterprise, many software companies (such as NetSuite) are re-working their hosted applications to work with the iPhone.
That’s a good start. But Apple can’t ignore enterprise and municipal customers forever. It’s time for Steve Jobs to pick up the phone and hammer out an agreement with Cisco.
The timing for a potential deal couldn’t be better. Cisco’s annual customer summit kicks off July 22 in Anaheim, California. Surely, Cisco CEO John Chambers would be willing to share the stage with Jobs.
All it would take is a simple phone call, Steve.
I think Tropos has like well over 20X the muni roll outs that Cisco does, so I suggest they talk to the right company. Of course, there was already a Wall Street Journal article talking about the widespread use of iPhone on Tropos networks so perhaps no meeting in necessary!
Hey Joe – be more specific, what do you want in this “partnership”? I see little more opportunity than a press release and frankly see little value from this at all. iPhone is a version 1.0 device (although you’d never guess it), it’s going to have some teething issues… all of which can be solved without some inter-galactic AAPL-CSCO partnership.
For the record, I think the iPhone is operating on many Muni networks already…
Until the release of the iPhone and the massive publicity it generated, most wireless network operators have given very little thought to designing networks that work not just for laptops, but also for devices like the iPhone. In fact although Wi-Fi gaming devices like the Nintendo DS have been around, these networks ignore their existence and continue to require browser-based logins. Worse, a lot of the networks require Internet Explorer based logins even though a large number of people are using Firefox. I will post a commentary on this soon because unless network operators wake up to a “multicultural” world (tech-wise), their networks will be useless.
Esme… your comments are fair enough, but Cisco isn’t going to solve any of that for anyone (which was the whole point of this article). Check out companies like Devicescape which are trying to solve the specific issue you mention.
Steve, Marty: Thanks for the fedback. I appreciate your thoughts.
I respect the work Tropos and the rest of the wireless mesh companies have done. But I called for an Apple/Cisco relationship for three reasons:
1. Cisco had leverage with Apple. Cisco owns the iPhone trademark and could have played hardball in court over the name. Instead, Cisco in good faith allowed Apple to use the name. Still, Cisco could use the trademark as leverage to get Apple back to the negotiating table. If Cisco’s legal offices call Apple, you can bet Apple will pick up the phone… I could be wrong, but I don’t think Tropos has that type of leverage or mind share within Apple.
2. While there are numerous wireless mesh companies, the vast majority of universities and municipalities have Cisco somewhere in their network. So, Apple/Cisco interoperability with the total network — not just the municipal wifi part — is critical.
3. More than writing a press release, Apple and Cisco together could unlock the full power of unified communications, TelePresence, presence, etc. Also, Cisco has growing relationships with Salesforce.com and other ISVs, setting the stage for unified networks to work far more closely with back-end applications.
I am not suggesting that Apple-Cisco should (A) issue a press release with nothing behind it or (B) designed proprietary links between their technologies. The goal would be for Cisco to get Apple to open up the iPhone for enterprise networks and, by extension, enterprise apps.
Admittedly, that’s a lofty goal…
What we are all missing here (IMHO) is that Apple doesn’t need to call Cisco (or any muni vendor for that matter). Apple also isn’t ignoring the enterprise market. What they are doing is waiting for the right time to introduce the features that people want. One if they keys of the iPhone and like devices are the software/functionality updates that Apple will add over time, unlike other device vendors (although Nokia gets some credit for the 800 updates).
We won’t see a lot of the plan until Leopard hits the streets, then more functionality will be better integrated with the iPhone as well.
Cisco will benefit from Apple’s success without anything formal and it is in their best interests to ensure they work well with Apple products…and as we saw from the Duke situation, we should all be more careful before assigning blame.
To Esme’s point, the iPhone and other devices will force manufacturers, service providers, and content owners of all sizes to rethink access schemes on the WiFi side of things as well radio technologies on the carrier side of things. Apple (and Google) are changing the economics in the access game and that, in the end, will be the forcing event from which we all can hopefully benefit.