Apple owns the domain name but does nothing with it.
Back in May Apple did something smart: it went after the iPhone5.com domain name well in advance of the launch of the new device.
A week after Apple filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization, the owner of the domain name relinquished control.
The domain name is now owned by Apple and pointing to the apple.com nameservers. Thanks to Apple’s advance work it was primed and ready for today’s big iPhone 5 announcement…
Except it wasn’t.
Right now if you type in iPhone5.com it doesn’t resolve. [Update: as of Wednesday evening the domain name now forwards to Apple.com with a tracking code for Apple to know the visit came from an iPhone5.com type-in.]
All Apple has to do is forward it to iPhone.com. It’s pretty simple.
You see companies miss “little” things like this all the time. But I assumed Apple was on the ball since it worked to obtain the domain name in advance of its launch.
I guess not.
Domainer Extraordinaire says
ISPs are making all the PPC money now.
Liz says
You are so right on. We’ve been showing and saying this type of corporate dropping the ball since 1995.
Bizarre.
Liz
DomainPalooza.com
Kevin says
Link works now.
Andrew Allemann says
Yes, they fixed it last night
Kevin says
I am investor in Apple. Sent a note to their investor relations yesterday and domain admin giving them heads up
Andrew Allemann says
Interestingly, Apple moved the domain name off its DNS and over to brand protection company CSC’s DNS. Maybe so CSC could measure the traffic?
Tom says
I actually posted a comment on the forum at iphone5.com last year to the effect he needed to drop the website as it was a trademark name. He immediately deleted my comment. Just trying to help him out. Sometimes people have to learn the hard way.