Apple iCloud storage upgrades introduced by Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing (Photo : Getty images/ Stephen Lam / Stringer)
Apple newly acquired the domain name iCloud.net, one of the final pieces related to iCloud that the company itself did not own. Although its not clear when Apple made the deal, the social network earlier linked to that domain will be winding by the end of this month.
This is definitely not a super move on Apple's part, still it marks the competition of the company's quest to achieve all of the primary addresses connected with iCloud, 9to5mac reported. Significantly, Apple remitted nearly $5.2 million to software company Xcerion for the iCloud.com domain name back in 2011, much ahead of the launch of its actual cloud service.
After the sale, Xcerion transferred Apple the rest of its iCloud-related name holdings after four years. The transfer included nearly 170 domain names such as iCloud.us, iCloud, eu, and iCloud.tv. Apple purchase of iCloud.net will further ensure that the Chinese social network linked with that domain name go by the wayside.
"Hi all users of iCloud.net:
You may find an announcement showing on the homepage of iCloud.net, yes, we decide to close iCloud.net and stop all its services.
We offer social service since 2011, but now, iCloud.net finished his mission, it is time for him to retire." Tong Lei , iCloud.net owner says.
Having begun in 2011, its not clear how many users iCloud.net had, Techcrunch reported.
"iCloud social network is a multi-purpose network platform.", iCloud.net noted on its home page.
"You can share your activities, pictures, music, videos, movies, write your daily blogs, and join in your favourite groups, etc. By joining iCloud.NET, you will get the latest news feeds from your friends, interact with friends and get the fun of life is our greatest expectations."
It appears that Tong Lei, the developer behind the network, will retain other existing portals in operation. These include a Bitcoin site, a search engine and that Lei is also planning a couponing site for Chinese consumers.
To be perfectly clear: its definitely not a sure bet that any of these social efforts - if Apple would ever make it out into the market - would use iCloud branding.
Still, if Apple wish to choose to expand into more social or photo information storage services under any name, the proximity of a social network called iCloud.net would certainly be too close for comfort.
