Rumor: Apple buys iCloud domain

By Trevor Mogg April 27, 2011

According to blogger Om Malik of GigaOM, Apple may have purchased the domain name iCloud.com for the sum of $4.5 million. Malik’s source, however, is unnamed, and in the blog post is referred to as “a tipster of mine” and someone who is “familiar with the company” – that company being the previous owner of the domain name, Xcerion.

Xcerion has just changed the name of its cloud-based service from iCloud to CloudMe. The domain name for that website was acquired on April 5 of this year, says GigaOM. A search of the Whois database still shows the iCloud domain name as registered to Xcerion, though this could change shortly.

It is widely thought that Apple is close to announcing some form of cloud-based service. Only last week it was reported that the Cupertino company had reached an agreement with Warner Music, and possibly other record labels, to get iTunes in the cloud. Earlier in the month there were similar rumblings about a cloud-based TV service in the offing from Apple. And if all that isn’t enough to have the more skeptical among you thinking, “Well, maybe it is going to look into this whole cloud business after all,” Apple is thought to have recently hired Kevin Timmons, the man who helped build the infrastructure for Microsoft’s global cloud computing network.

So let’s say it’s safe to assume Apple is going to be a player in the cloud. In that case, it’ll be wanting a domain name. Putting an “i” in front of the very service they’re offering would be just what you’d expect the company to do. Or is that too obvious?

The growing speculation could all be pointing toward a big announcement from Apple at the WWDC kicking off on June 6 in San Francisco.

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Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

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