InfoGear
InfoGear Technology Corporation was an American information technology company founded in 1995. In 1998, it introduced the iPhone internet appliance. The company was acquired in 2000 by Cisco.
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 – 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 - The company worked in partnership with CIDCO systems to introduce the first iPhone.
Phase 3 – 1997 – 2000 - 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.
Phase 4 - 2000 – Present – InfoGear was acquired by Cisco Systems on March 16, 2000. Cisco operated the InfoGear Network until later shutting it down.