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Apple has secured iPhone5.com, perhaps hinting at the name for the next iPhone. Is Apple jealously guarding the sanctity of the iPhone name, or will the iPhone 5 finally follow the iPhone 4S?
Apple has tied up the web address for the iPhone 5, wresting it from cybersquatters sitting on the domain name. The question is whether it’s pre-empting an announcement of ‘iPhone 5’ as a moniker for the next phone from Apple, or this is just a precautionary measure to protect the iPhone brand.
Apple hasn’t previously been too inclined to stomp on domain squatters, only coming down like a tonne of bricks on iPhone4S.com when it was forwarding readers to porn sites.
Cybersquatting involves buying up a domain name related to a company or product or person that’s nothing to do with you, in the hope of making money from the visitors looking for that company, product or person — and ideally, selling the URL to that company, product or person for big monies.
iPhone5.com was set up in late 2010, shortly after the launch of the iPhone 4.
Last year, tech-fans got all in a tizzy over the prospect of an iPhone 5 — only to be thoroughly wrong-footed by the announcement of the iPhone 4S. Apple has a mischievous streak when it comes to naming products, like when the follow-up to the iPad 2 turned out to be named the new iPad.
So securing the iPhone 5 name doesn’t mean that’s the plan for Apple’s next phone — and we can’t rule out ‘new iPhone’ — but it’s certainly an interesting move from the Californian company.
Will we see an iPhone 5 or a new iPhone this year? What name do you think Apple will plump for? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.
