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AfterCollege.com has posted a job listing looking for a “Sr. iPhone Support Rep,” suggesting that Apple is preparing for the influx of attention the iPhone will generate in June when the device is released.
Training for the support team position begins in May when the applications are due. Job requirements include:
AT&T (the new Cingular) may pay Apple a cut of all subscribers it refers to the communications company via both the online and offline Apple stores, according to American Technology Research firm’s Shaw Wu.
“The iPhone … commands enough potential sales leverage that AT&T is willing to share some of the proceeds,” said Wu, the same analyst who speculated about AT&T giving customers $50 to $150 iPhone rebates.
“AT&T will pay Apple a commission for each new customer and a cut of the customer’s monthly payment,” he said.
Harvard Business professor David Yoffie told USA Today that all the media attention surrounding Apple’s iPhone has so far generated $400 million in free publicity for Apple.
“No other company has ever received that kind of attention for a product launch,” said Yoffie.
Gizmodo’s Mark Wilson questions the validity of that claim. “I doubt that the iPhone announcement drew society’s attention more than, say, RCA’s first color television or Phillips’ first VCR,” said Wilson.
I’m with Gizmodo on this one. $400 million by today’s standards is not all that much. Wilson points out that Gizmodo’s iPhone coverage alone generated at least $200 million.
Tech giants Apple and Cisco kissed and made up today after a six-week brawl over, get this, a name. Yeah, “iPhone” actually. Silly if you ask me.
Apple agrees. Last month it said “We [too] think Cisco’s trademark lawsuit is silly…there are already several companies using the name iPhone for Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) products.”
Well just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean you should, too, Apple. Didn’t your mother ever teach you that?
Nevertheless, the two companies agreed to share the iPhone trademark and said their products would “work together in the future.” Good for them.
Steve Jobs doesn’t play nice. Back in 2005, when asked about an iPod mobile phone, Jobs said Apple would have to get through many “orifices [i.e. cell phone service providers] to get to the end users.”
Well it seems Jobs has made it through these orifices, because not only did Apple establish a deal with Cingular (now AT&T) for the iPhone service, it managed to get around Cingular’s usual demands to control most of “every detail from processing power to the various features that come with the phone,” said the Wall Street Journal.
With the iPhone, Apple convinced Cingular that it knows Web surfing and multimedia better than they do. Apparently, this was important enough to Cingular that they agreed to give Apple a cut of the revenue generated from subscribers, even though AT&T won’t get a penny from iPhone sales. Is that a price worth paying to be the exclusive carrier of the Apple iPhone?
Regarding the Cisco-Apple lawsuit, Cisco CEO John Chambers said today that what his company wants from Apple, instead of money, is “interoperability, or the ability of the Apple phone to work smoothly with Cisco product.”
In a joint statement, the two tech giants said:
Apple and Cisco have agreed to extend the time for Apple to respond to the lawsuit to allow for discussions between the companies with the aim of reaching agreement on trademark rights and interoperability.
Without a doubt, this “interoperability” will be more lucrative for Cisco than ridding Apple of the iPhone name would be. Seems like a bit of a burden for Apple. But I guess that’s the price you pay for stealing someone’s trademark.
…via Biz Journals.