News

Following months of speculation, the iPhone has finally arrived. But after all the hype, it turns out that this next generation phone isn't a device from Apple Inc., and it doesn't play music.

Instead, the iPhone is a VoIP handset made by Cisco Inc., through its Linksys networking division. The new line of iPhone devices allows people to make telephone calls over Internet connections as well as use other popular web features, such as Skype and Yahoo Messenger with Voice.

Linksys launched its iPhone brand today, although some of the products in the category have been in the market for a while. Linksys has shipped more than 3 million VoIP phones since 2004, which includes some of the seven product lines now under the iPhone umbrella, the company said in a news release.

Analysts have speculated for months that Apple is preparing to launch a new device next month that will marry its iPod portable music player with a cell phone capable of downloading tracks from Apple's iTunes online music store.

The Cupertino, Calif., company has sold almost 40 million iPod players and about 1.5 billion downloads from iTunes.

Apple filed a patent application for a combination phone and music player on Nov. 30. But apparently it did not secure a trademark for the “iPhone” brand, which would be a natural evolution from the company's hugely popular iPod and iTunes trademarks that dominate the world of portable and downloadable music files.

Cisco acquired the iPhone trademark through a $301-million (U.S.) stock deal in 2000 to buy Infogear Technology Corp., which specialized in Internet appliances.