Apple Inc. has secured the domain name AppleID.com according to whois records from a Hiroshi Kaneko of Toyko. The domain name was registered May 26, 2004 and held the same registrant email ever since being created, which indicates that Hiroshi has owned the domain name ever since creation.
The Apple Id is a “user name” used for iTunes, iCloud and many of Apple’s products and services.
Interesting to note, Apple also registered the domain name AppleIdStore.us on May 16, 2015. The .com was registered recently on 1/30/2015 by a company in China and the .net was also registered by somebody other than Apple on 4/4/2015. Did those two registrants have some insider information?
I think the focus here is on the “store” part, as the Apple ID isn’t something “new” although they have recently secured the AppleID.com domain. That alone can point to the company planning on doing something “bigger” with it.
During some research, IdStore.com was acquired on 7/22/2014 by Discovery Communications and redirects to http://store.discovery.com/?v=investigation-discovery which is for a TV show, so that domain is not owned by Apple.
Apple currently uses the sub-domain appleid.apple.com to direct users to the Apple Id page but this will likely include at least a redirect of AppleID.com to that sub-domain or some kind of use for the newly acquired domain name.
In general, Apple isn’t a huge domain name lover as they often launch products and services without owning the exact match domain name. They clearly own many domains to products and services they offer but not as much as many other companies of there size.
Here is a screenshot of the recent update to whois records showing Apple Inc. as the new owners of the AppleID.com domain.
This will be something to keep an eye on as to what they do with AppleID.com and if they make some kind of play with Apple ID Store.
Update: A UDRP filing has just shown up that was filed by Apple on the AppleID.com domain name but has since been terminated. This often indicates that the owner of the domain name gave it up without a fight, so no ruling was needed.
Best “New” name Tim can register would be “AppleGear”.
It is generic, androgynous, and all encompassing.
It can be applied regarding any product or accessory.
The generic nature of Apple’s brand name may be responsible for its inability to acquire domain names for majority of its products like other companies. It may be running away from UDRPs.