Cisco Systems and Apple agreed to share the 'iPhone' name, but both companies are staying tightlipped about what future products might come from the resulting deal to collaborate on 'interoperability' between the companies' products, an Associated Press report said.
The Associated Press report quoted analysts as saying that the settlement 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, the report said.
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 programs, the report said.
However, he cautioned that both companies need to be willing to share in order to make the partnership work, the report further said.
