InfoGear Technology Corporation, founded in 1995, was an American technology and services company which developed and marketed an early type of desktop phone which it named iPhone. The company and its trademark of the iPhone name were acquired in 2000 by

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

. In 2007,

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

and Cisco reached an agreement allowing Apple to use the iPhone name on its own distinct iPhone products.

Company history

The company's history can be divided into four distinct phases: Phase 1 – May 1995 – The original iPhone product concept was developed as part of an internal innovation project at

National Semiconductor National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer which specialized in analog devices and subsystems, formerly with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The company produced power management integrated circuits, display drive ...

– code named Project Mercury. Bob Ackerman, a strategy and technology consultant working with National Semiconductors’ Demetris Paraskevopoulos, first discovered the project in National's labs. Ackerman worked with his colleague Jeff Oscodar and the National team to spin the project out into a start-up company in 1995. Phase 2 – 1995 - 1996 (Bob Marshall, CEO) - The company worked in partnership with CIDCO systems to introduce the first iPhone (CIDCO iPhone). Phase 3 – 1997 – 2000 (Ed Cluss, CEO) - The company bought the iPhone II intellectual property from CIDCO and introduced the iPhone to the consumer market. It also explored the "J-Phone" concept, and ported InfoGear Networks to GSM mobile phones (code named Ducati). Phase 4 - 2000 – Present – InfoGear was acquired by

on March 16, 2000. Cisco operated the InfoGear Network until later shutting it down.

Products

iPhone

InfoGear had offices in California and an R&D center in Israel. InfoGear developed a line of Internet appliances, of which the best known was the

Linksys iPhone The Linksys iPhone was a line of internet appliances from Cisco Systems. The first iPhone model – released by Infogear in 1998 – combined the features of a regular phone and a web terminal. The company was later purchased by Cisco and no ...

, an Internet screenphone. The first-generation iPhone shipped in 1997 and the second in 1999. It was ultimately distributed in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The iPhone trademark was developed and owned by InfoGear. White iPhone 1

InfoGear Network

The Info Gear Network provided user-relevant information and services in conjunction with

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

, content and service partners.

References

Cisco Systems acquisitions {{ict-company-stub