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Apr 12, 2001
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GigaOM reports that it has received word that Apple has purchased the iCloud.com domain name for a sum of $4.5 million. The domain had been used until recently by an online storage firm of the same, but the company recently rebranded its service as CloudMe.
My source, who is familiar with the company, says that Xcerion has sold the domain to Apple for about $4.5 million. Xcerion hasn't responded to my queries as yet. At the time of writing, the Whois database showed Xcerion as the owner of iCloud.
For the time being, iCloud.com redirects visitors to CloudMe.com, but presumably Apple will take over the domain when needed if the claim is in fact true.

We had received a heads-up about the iCloud-to-CloudMe rebranding last week, but were unable to dig up any information specifically linking the change to a purchase by Apple at that time. Obviously, specific rumors of Apple acquiring the domain with a specific purchase price lend credence to the original speculation, but we'll still be watching for the domain to officially change hands, presumably to MarkMonitor, the brand management firm that handles Apple's domain registrations (along with those of many other high-profile companies).

Apple of course is said to have completed work on a new cloud-based storage system for media, and appears to be in the final stages of securing deals with record labels before launching the service.

Article Link: Apple Purchases iCloud.com for $4.5 Million?
 
And yet again here is more evidence that I need to start buying domain names and selling them to companies...I think I will call the next one ifriend.com and when apple releases a virtual friend in 2020 I will be RICH!!!:cool:
 
Surprised Apple didn't also want CloudMe to go with MobileMe. Could have saved millions with MobileCloud. But if you have it to burn...
 
iCloud. Hmm. Looks like that company had the name right from the start.


And yet again here is more evidence that I need to start buying domain names and selling them to companies...I think I will call the next one ifriend.com and when apple releases a virtual friend in 2020 I will be RICH!!!:cool:

+1. Couldn't have said it any better.


iCloud? They could have been more creative.
Tell that to Apple
iPhone, iMac, iPod, iPad ...
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

Hats off to Apple, they came up with a name almost as bad as Mobile Me. I did not think they had it in them.
 
And yet again here is more evidence that I need to start buying domain names and selling them to companies...I think I will call the next one ifriend.com and when apple releases a virtual friend in 2020 I will be RICH!!!:cool:

Agreed.
Wonder if Apple would've paid me that much if i just made iCloud.com and didn't do anything with it..
 
I'll be amazed if they actually use that.

"iCloud" seems analogous to that whole "iSlate" vs "iPad"; a name the media has cooked up, but won't ever actually be used in any Apple branding.

Hopefully they've just bought this name as an option that they won't actually go ahead with. It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.
 
The domain name thing is insane. I've been offered $30,000 for the domain name I use for my family (a four-character abbreviation for my surname, which happens to be a common word often used to identify businesses), and turned it down. It would be just too disruptive for everybody in my family to switch to new email addresses, and I have a bunch of web services we use under that domain name.

I get around three or four offers a month to buy the domain name, presumably from speculators hoping to capitalize on it at some future date.
 
I think the real question now is whether we see this new cloud service shown during an OS5 reveal at WWDC, or at the September event.

Of course, if they're launching the music sync at the same time, it would make more sense to launch it with new iPods in September.
 
Apple should have just bought Dropbox and been done with it. Dropbox has them beat in just about every cloud way possible.
 
And yet again here is more evidence that I need to start buying domain names and selling them to companies...I think I will call the next one ifriend.com and when apple releases a virtual friend in 2020 I will be RICH!!!:cool:

You should have got iCloud.com before the CloudMe service came about and you'd have 4.5 million :eek:
 
It's about time to put that server farm to good use. Also, this is a better domain name than "me.com." I don't really like the idea of having an "@me.com" email address, so I always give out my "@mac.com" address.
 
Best investment of $13 ever.
Understatement of the year.

You can work your whole life and never make 4.5 million dollars, or just casually buy a domain name and let Apple set you up for life. What a crazy world this is.
 
I think Cloud Drive is a better name than iCloud

You don't want to hear the word Drive in a name. That just brings the memory of local storage even though it's called "Cloud" Drive.

Personally iCloud is simple to the point name that everyone can remember and knowingly see the site being an Apple site.

Even though it's not a clever name Apple like to keep it simple and to the point.

Apple is about that simple minded look, name, and feel with the technical stuff behind the scenes.
 
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