Apple iOne, Everyone else iZero

I haven’t been to a Consumer Electronic Show in many years but I was sorry I didn’t get the time to attend this years show in Las Vegas.  A lot of friends attended this years show which was full of news, new products and personal appearances by Bill Gates at many small functions.  Usually, Bill may give a keynote speech and then disappears.  Bill and wife Melinda have been very busy in the 21st century and while it has been wonderful for the poor and needy of the world, his absence on the Redmond campus has hurt Microsoft.  The excitement over Windows Vista hasn’t come close to previous new versions and this may have been different had Bill been more hands-on.

Meanwhile, Steve Jobs is putting 150% of himself into rebuilding Apple’s product share.  Thousands of new products have been introduced at CES but the biggest news reported this week was the “iPhone” from Apple.  The media loves Apple and if Jobs plays his cards right, we could even see the Mac market share back to respectable numbers this year.

Want proof?  Last month Linksys, a division of Cisco announced the “iPhone” but nobody cared much. They actually own the iPhone trademark but there are reports an agreement over the naming rights is near. I suspect the price tag will be more than when Apple paid a million dollars for the rights to the word “Classic” many years ago.

Click for iPhone news from CNet

InfoWorld coverage of the Linksys iPhone

CNet reports: Cisco sues Apple over use of iPhone trademark