iLounge

Two and a half years ago, Apple introduced “Made for iPod,” an iPod accessory licensing and testing program that provided manufacturers with iPod hardware specifications and an official Apple seal in exchange for a royalty on badged products. Today, Apple has announced a new iPhone-specific program called “Works with iPhone,” and stated that “[p]roducts that are engineered and certified to be compatible with the iPhone will carry the ‘Works with iPhone’ logo on their packaging.”

But which logo is the real Works with iPhone logo? We have our guesses based on the graphic designs here—the upper one is a very Apple-esque design, while the one below is not. But both types of logos, and many other variations we’ve seen (“Compatible with iPhone,” “Made for iPhone”) now appear on iPhone accessory packages.

Why do these logos matter? As Apple’s Questions and Answers page for iPhone explains, “iPhone may cause audio interference with some iPod accessories.” Speakers and other electronic accessories that have not been properly tested with iPhone may exhibit issues that range from minor to serious, and only properly tested electronic accessories will receive Apple’s seal. While it’s entirely possible that third-party accessory makers will learn to test their accessories properly without Apple involvement, most companies offering iPhone accessories today have not done so, and do not yet know how to do so. Consequently, we’ll be checking iPhone accessories to see how they perform with the device, and will be following official “Works with iPhone” developments closely in the future.