Earlier this morning, TechCrunch reported that Apple was able to acquire the iPhone4.com domain name. The news was based on an earlier Fusible report, although details of the deal weren’t disclosed, so it’s unknown if Apple paid for the domain name or used its legal options to secure it.
In somewhat related but different news, Verizon has finally been able to take possession of (or less likely to acquire) VerizoniPhone.com, arguably the best iPhone name for the company’s needs. I had previously reported that it appeared someone unrelated to either Verizon or Apple owned the domain name. At the time of my last article, the domain name did not resolve to the standard GoDaddy coming soon page with PPC links, so GoDaddy probably opted to not take on any risk of monetizing it.
According to my research, it appears the domain name was transferred to Verizon at some point at the end of June. I would imagine that Verizon did not purchase this domain name, since the company is known to vehemently protect its brand. The company has filed plenty of cybersquatting lawsuits (with a potential $100,000 penalty), and it has also filed a number of UDRPs.
Verizon Wireless is now forwarding traffic from the domain name to its iPhone lander.
Awhile back i checked and iphone4.com – Iphone19 were not registered with Apple. Now I think it’s up to 21 after checking. I wondered if Apple would take that domain since it’s their current product, they’ll probably take iphone 5 too.
However, I’m not sure if Apple would still be calling each release numerically after that long or if the iphone name would simply evolve itself. Seems very unlikely that 1phone21.com would be worth registering or developing at all, even if you did, Apple could take it back.