Apple Wins iPhone5.com Domain

Apple has won the domain iPhone5.com after filing a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO) over it. While it doesn't necessarily mean the next iPhone will be called "iPhone 5," it's likely part of Apple's strategy to exert some kind of control over the conversation about its next smartphone.

The domain had previously been registered to a company in Australia, but it now belongs to  Corporation Service Company in Wilmington, Del., a domain-name registrar company. As The Next Web first reported, Apple probably contracted the Corporation Service Company's services to take ownership of the domain.

Currently, visitors of  iPhone5.com are greeted by a completely blank page, without even a single note or "under construction" notice. Before it was shut down, the site campaigned to have the domain stay independent, telling visitors, "Call Corporate Of Apple and tell them to stop there persuit!! Blow up there phones, Spam there emails, call there Administration! Do something to get our point across.

It's not the first time Apple has publicly wrestled over domain-name ownership prior to a major product launch. Shortly before Apple first unveiled iCloud in 2011, it obtained the iCloud.com domain from Xcerion, a Swedish software company. In that case, the exchange was amicable, with Apple reportedly paying $4.5 million for the URL.

The dispute over iPhone5.com better resembles Apple's acquisition of the iPods.com domain, which it won last year after WIPO ruled that the owner, MP3Gold.com, needed to hand it over.

While the term "iPhone 5" has been used as the default name for the next iPhone, the domain switch doesn't mean that will be the official name of the product. Technically, it will be the sixth model of iPhone released by Apple, and with the last iPad launch, Apple eschewed any kind of suffix for the product name, numerical or otherwise.

Whatever Apple calls the next iPhone, the site iPhone5.com won't show up in searches for the term, or if it does users won't see any information -- real or madeup -- about the product. While there will be no shortage of rumors and speculation in the run up to release, Apple's goal may be to simply deprive casual web users of the most obvious hub they would use to look for info.

What do you hope Apple does with iPhone5.com? Have your say in the comments.