Before Apple’s iPhone there was iPhone.com
The blogger behind ThinkingSerious.com, Elmer Thomas, happened to run into the original owner of iPhone.com at Starbucks; see the video interview below.
Michael Kovatch started an internet company in 1993 and was inspired by Microsoft’s now ancient communications software “Net Meeting.” After searching for and finding InternetPhone.com unavailable, Michael reserved his domain iPhone.com knowing that the internet would be used for phone service in the not-so-distant future.
Once again, Starbucks proves to be a great place to meet interesting people. Today, I met Michael Kovatch, who is recently “Internet” famous for selling iPhone.com to Apple… Following is a brief video interview where Michael explains how he acquired iPhone.com…
Via: ThinkingSerious.com
Quite an interesting story, a realistic glimpse into the beginnings of domaining as we know it.
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May 8th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Nice post
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May 8th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Did he say he regged it in 1983??
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May 8th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
He’s a little confused about the dates. There was no actual Internet in 1983, much less domain names you could purchase. He may mean 1993.
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May 9th, 2008 at 12:34 am
ICANN Registrar: MARKMONITOR INC.
Created: 1995-08-24
Expires: 2010-08-23
I don’t think it was registered in 1983. Either way, nice post!
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May 9th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Storys like this make me wish I had picked up on registering domain names years ago. I could be a millionaire now :(
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May 9th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
If I could take a brief glimpse into the future I’d see what the next great idea would be and buy up the domains and just wait.
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May 11th, 2008 at 1:11 am
He’s not a fortune teller, but he used his imagination to predict the future and got the fortune on his side.
A nice inspiring post.
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May 11th, 2008 at 3:36 am
Obviously he meant 1995, as the whois shows. Of course he could not have meant 1983 or even 1993, as there was no World Wide Web as we know it today at that point. An internet, sure… that predates 1983 even, but it was 1995 before domain names came to be. Sir Tim Berners-Lee working at CERN created the modern internet, really in 1989, much to my surprise. (Though I sure do remember Gopher and all that pre WWW stuff.)
Though many would probably agree that ARPANet in 1969 was the early basis for todays Internet.
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May 11th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Who come first he get it first :D
He just lucky, but heve he sell it to apple
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May 13th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Great insight on his part. Apple was probably happy to get that domain name.
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May 13th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
@John, Leonard & Rob
Actually there was an internet in 1983, just not a world wide web. Domain names were around way before the web, remember that email predates the web by decades.
The first .com registered was in 1985 (symbolics.com) and I believe, although I can’t find a link right now, that .NET was actually the first TLD.
The 100 oldest .com domains:
http://www.iwhois.com/oldest/
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May 19th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
So much in in this life is based on luck. He was bright enough to see a potential money-maker, and it was luck that made it happen.
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May 20th, 2008 at 11:57 am
I have been buying up emerging technology dot coms for five years and have 700 now, organized into categories like biotech, nanotech, robotics, virtual reality, etc. Wish I would have started 10 years ago instead of 5. Great post on iphone.com… Ted
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May 25th, 2008 at 5:48 am
Great post. I never knew that, lucky guy.
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June 27th, 2008 at 2:34 am
I’m interested in how much he sold the domain for. He probably is set for life with this smart little investment.
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July 14th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
I was wondering the same thing. Does anyone know how much apple paid for the domain?
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August 9th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Thats great post. I didn’t knew about it.. the guy was pretty lucky
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June 1st, 2009 at 10:07 pm
So many comments. Nice. All because of Apple.
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