Cisco Can Now Dial the iPhone

It’s about time. I expected Cisco Systems and Apple to announce some sort of iPhone applications partnership earlier this year, when Cisco sued Apple over the iPhone name. But a deal never occurred. Steve Jobs was hesitating to open up the iPhone to third-party developers, Cisco CEO John Chambers mentioned during a partner event in May. Now, all that has changed. Cisco–and its software partners–finally have the ability to write iPhone applications. Here’s why.