Domain records show Apple connection to iGuide.com unlikely.
If you’re one of the many Apple bloggers out there, your holiday season has been filled with speculation about Apple’s upcoming tablet. The consensus is that will be called iSlate, since Apple has acquired the iSlate.com domain name.
But another possibility is iGuide. MacRumors points to an Apple trademark application for iGuide. Robin Wauters over at TechCrunch did some investigating and comes to a similar conclusion as MacRumors — if anything, iGuide would likely be some sort of related service, not the name of the actual device.
When I saw the rumors about iGuide, I immediately recalled that the domain name iGuide.com had sold recently. Digging through the Domain Name Wire archives, I found this story about iGuide.com selling for $100,000. The whois record at the time showed Beverly Hills based Baroda Ventures LLC as the buyer. (It’s now protected by whois privacy.) I don’t see any connection to Apple, and the current use of the domain name leads me to believe there is none. It forwards to OVGuide.com, another domain owned by a Beverly Hills company at the same address as Baroda Ventures.
If Apple bought the domain name through a shell company, it certainly wouldn’t be forwarding it to an online video guide site.
It’s possible Apple has a product or service planned with the name iGuide, but it doesn’t own iGuide.com.
iGuide says
Hi,
I’m the owner of http://www.iguide.travel, which is currently the top “iGuide” in the world. iGuide is an interactive travel guide, and we’re currently #1 in Google for the word iGuide, and get about 300,000 users a month.
What’s my opinion on the name? It’s not bad, though not great. I would of course love if Apple also used the name (my name!!) to help support my brand.
As to iguide.com, I tried to purchase the domain in January, but BuyDomains had asked for USD $250,000. It turns out iguide.com was actually sold for $100,000 this summer, to who knows who? And no, I could not afford that at that time either.
Anyhow, check out http://www.iguide.travel, its the real iGuide, and developed 100% on a MacBook.
Alex / iGuide