Amaya Toman Try to think for a moment and search your memory: when did you first hear the term iPhone? Was it only when the Cupertino company launched this revolutionary product into the world? If so, you're not alone—but Apple's plans for the iPhone go back much further. Try to guess when the apple company registered the iPhone.org domain.
Apple bought the iPhone.org domain in December 1999 - back when mobile phone ownership was still more the preserve of businessmen and mobile touchscreens were the music of the future. Buying a domain back in the day might have raised some suspicions. At the end of the last century, Apple decided not to focus on the production of game consoles, personal digital assistants (PDAs) or even digital cameras, and even predicted the early demise of these devices in the following decade. But what was his attitude to the nascent mobile phone phenomenon?
A bet on (un)certainty
Among other things, significant for Apple is the very frequent filing of more or less bizarre patent applications, of which not all of them will be finally implemented. And the legendary iPhone could "end" in the same way today. The journey Apple had to take from registering a domain to launching its first smartphone took years, and there was definitely plenty of reason to be skeptical at the start. Apple bought the domain two years after the return of Steve Jobs, when it was still unclear to many people whether it would be able to maintain the position it had returned to thanks to Jobs. The Apple company had not very successful products behind it, such as the MessagePad, collaboration on the Bandai Pippin console or the QuickTake camera. However, a number of experts trusted Apple unconditionally again at that time. The iMac G3 from 1998, which earned the reputation of the computer responsible for "saving Apple", was particularly responsible for this trust.
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Daniel Hruska An inseparable connection?
The name "iPhone" has been unreservedly associated with Apple for over ten years. The name "iPhone" has been around since 1996 - so its origin is older than the origin of the letter "i" in the names of Apple products. At the beginning of this millennium, however, Cisco Systems had the copyright for this name, which came to it after buying a company called Infogear. Cisco used the "iPhone" name for its dual wireless VoIP (Voice over IP) phones. Apple has put itself at risk of litigation with Cisco by using the "iPhone" name. The dispute was settled only in 2007, and it was finally resolved that Apple also wanted to start using the term "iOS", which also belonged to Cisco.
See how Apple's website changed between 1999 and 2007 (source: mac.appstorm )
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One domain is not enough
While the purchase of the iPhone.org domain in the late 2007s was "merely" a harbinger of things to come, further actions of this type by Apple were necessary even after the iPhone was announced many years later. In 1993, Apple bought the iPhone.com domain from Michael Kovatch - this move cost the apple company more than one million dollars. The exact amount was not published - the media talked about a seven-figure sum. The iPhone.com domain had even been registered since 1995, and Kovatch bought it in 4. He is said to have initially refused to give up the domain - it's hard to say to what extent Kovatch's stubbornness was real, and to what extent it was simply to increase Apple's offer. The probability that Apple would stop fighting for the domain was practically zero at the time. Now, when you type "iPhone.com" into the directory, you'll be automatically redirected to the iPhone section of Apple's website. Later, Apple bought, for example, the domains iPhone5.com, iPhoneXNUMX.com or whiteiphone.com.
