Apple iPhone could hurt the .mobi extension

[cyberair]

Could .mobi have a shorter lifespan than expected? First, look at this video advertisement by Apple for the iPhone:

The real web is shown on the phone through a brilliant UI. With a massive adoption of iPhones in the market, followed by countless imitators incorporating similar Internet browsing techniques, will there be a need for a mobile version of the Internet? I have to say that I am always happy to find a mobile version of the Internet when I am browsing on my 700p, but functionality is always very limited. On top of that, the amount of websites that offer mobile versions are very few. The ones that do, in my experience, do not use the .mobi extension. Rather, they use m.domain.com or domain.com/mobile.

.mobi has been a very hot extension lately. This year we have seen several big sales in the extension such as:

* Sportsbook.mobi - $129,000
* RealEstate.mobi - $85,000
* Stocks.mobi - $70,000
* Casinos.mobi - $52,000
* Girls.mobi - $49,000
* Singles.mobi - $41,000

These domains were sold at a time where the industry wasn’t aware of Apple’s way of mobile browsing. I have a feeling that it will be very difficult to sustain such a premium for .mobi once the market flocks again to Steve Job’s vision.

http://blog.rafaelsosa.com/2007/06/08/apple-iphone-could-hurt-the-mobi-extension/

 

[BidNo]

Oh boy, YAMT (Yet another mobi thread)

I'm a geek who works in this field. I don't state it very often as it tends fall on deaf ears, but I see no practical value and little technical basis for mobi. The .mobi story has been a triumph in the use of marketing to feed speculation versus real underlying or potential value. In my opinion there has been a lot of viral marketing, board spamming, and seeded sales to make it happen. Domainers have believed because they wanted to believe and the whole episode reminds me highly of tulip mania. For example, remember the posts fed into various forums at critical junctures about all the companies that were just lining up to back mobi? Did anybody ever actually see statements from these companies to this effect? Not likely.

On one hand mobi supporters think I'm missing a great opportunity. On the other hand I think people are being suckered. We all make our own choices and I do wish everybody success.

 

[Fearless]

That demo sure looks neat. Microsoft is working on a browser too http://labs.live.com/deepfish/

.mobi RIP

 

[touchring]

Domainers are not stupid, they are hyping it to flip. Many of those already made a pile and insane profit within 3 mths of landrush. Some .mobi "evangelists" on DS even admitted it towards the end that they made their money and are not affected when the hype ended. I think it's the newbies that seldom post on this forum that carry the baby.

 

[Poker]

Domainers are not stupid, they are hyping it to flip.

Hate to burst your bubble (ok, not really) but some "Domainers" are stupid because they are on the other end of that flip.

I think it's the newbies that seldom post on this forum that carry the baby.

Wrong again. Take a look around, they are all over this forum.

BTW, own any mobis?

 

[Gerry]

Oh my, what a beautiful phone. Isn't that something. You can view a web page on a cell phone. What will they think of next.

Gee, perhaps someone will realize that just maybe people don't like the idea of having a full blown web site in this little teeny tiny space.

Then you have to find what you're looking for, click, click again, see if you have the right article, click, click, click...oops, oh shit...let me go back and start over.

Lets see, where are the stock quotes? the scores? Wow, like reading a whole newspaper. But this is the iPhone and by golly it is the end of mobi for sure. Just look at what that damn thing can do!

Or...

Go to Boroughs.mobi and find you stock quotes.

Or go to amtrack.mobi, check the routes, book passage.

Or go to En-route.mobi, check the weather, get the latest news.

Or go to DIR.mobi and find a handy dandy list of all available mobi sites.

Or go FUX.mobi and download some cool ringtones.

Or go to Tropical.mobi and see what the latest weather conditions are in the tropics and find a hotel.

Or go to LVH.mobi and look for vacancy and hotels in Las Vegas.

Or go to BOFA.mobi and do all your banking from the Bank Of America's mobi website right on your phone.

Or go to BMW.mobi and see the latest models and find the dealer near you.

Or go to any other number of mobi compliant sites that are made for and formatted to fit that little tiny teeny screen you hold in your hand along with the other estimated 4 billion cell phones and don't you worry one little hair on your head about having to look at something the size of a newspaper in such a small space without any difficulty what so ever.

WOW! Ain't that I phone something! Just think what that SOB will do with a real bona fide .mobi site. Why, it might even work with that!

Damn, what was Steve Jobs thinking when they even came out with something like this. And I am being suckered into this cesspool of hype and crap by all these Fortune 100 companies.

Damn, I am such an idiot. I guess I better hurry up and flip my mobi's and hang on to my other 3000 or so domains.

Wait, what am I talking about.

I remember about 5 years ago, 3 years ago, 1 year ago, perhaps 3 months ago reading on this very forum that IDN was bullshit, most ccTLD's were bullshit, hyphens were worthless, dot com and dot com only, 7 letters or less, and stay away from numbers.

I am so damn glad I did not listen to the BS 10, 7, 5, 3, and one year ago and 5, 3, 1 month ago, and one hour ago.

 

[Duckinla]

Mobi should be so lucky to get to the point where it is in competition with this or any other product. Never gonna happen.

Doc Com understands the mobi extension and how it should be used. I just doubt it's ever going to become a household word.

 

[PRED]

Oh my, what a beautiful phone. Isn't that something. You can view a web page on a cell phone. What will they think of next.

Gee, perhaps someone will realize that just maybe people don't like the idea of having a full blown web site in this little teeny tiny space.

Then you have to find what you're looking for, click, click again, see if you have the right article, click, click, click...oops, oh shit...let me go back and start over.

Lets see, where are the stock quotes? the scores? Wow, like reading a whole newspaper. But this is the iPhone and by golly it is the end of mobi for sure. Just look at what that damn thing can do!

Or...

Go to Boroughs.mobi and find you stock quotes.

Or go to amtrack.mobi, check the routes, book passage.

Or go to En-route.mobi, check the weather, get the latest news.

Or go to DIR.mobi and find a handy dandy list of all available mobi sites.

Or go FUX.mobi and download some cool ringtones.

Or go to Tropical.mobi and see what the latest weather conditions are in the tropics and find a hotel.

Or go to LVH.mobi and look for vacancy and hotels in Las Vegas.

Or go to BOFA.mobi and do all your banking from the Bank Of America's mobi website right on your phone.

Or go to BMW.mobi and see the latest models and find the dealer near you.

Or go to any other number of mobi compliant sites that are made for and formatted to fit that little tiny teeny screen you hold in your hand along with the other estimated 4 billion cell phones and don't you worry one little hair on your head about having to look at something the size of a newspaper in such a small space without any difficulty what so ever.

WOW! Ain't that I phone something! Just think what that SOB will do with a real bona fide .mobi site. Why, it might even work with that!

Damn, what was Steve Jobs thinking when they even came out with something like this. And I am being suckered into this cesspool of hype and crap by all these Fortune 100 companies.

Damn, I am such an idiot. I guess I better hurry up and flip my mobi's and hang on to my other 3000 or so domains.

Wait, what am I talking about.

I remember about 5 years ago, 3 years ago, 1 year ago, perhaps 3 months ago reading on this very forum that IDN was bullshit, most ccTLD's were bullshit, hyphens were worthless, dot com and dot com only, 7 letters or less, and stay away from numbers.

I am so damn glad I did not listen to the BS 10, 7, 5, 3, and one year ago and 5, 3, 1 month ago, and one hour ago.

LOL Classic Doc ! _______________________________________ In regards to .mobi, as Oscar Wilde once said, there's only one thing worse than people talking about you....... LOL, you got it! I've never seen adoption & development of an extension by so many major & minor players, so quickly. It has never happened before & may never again. Forget competiton with .com etc. It's a silly argument. They're thier own thang. The phone looks nice, is sure to be popular until the next gadget, probably a month later. As we've said a thousand times, it's about branding. The same way a .com does nothing different to a .info The reserved process names come out soon etc, things are moving

 

[MobileDesigner]

my goodness...... here we go again......
ill write this again:

".mobi is not a new technology. It is a way to get to companies mobile website."

I dont know why incompetent people keep writing that .mobi is a failure. it is not.

I too, am a mobile geek (携帯オタク)with many years in the mobile website development industry in Tokyo, Japan. Here, we are more advanced in technology than ".com owners who hate .mobi"'s country. There are hundreds of thousands of mobile websites in Japan, China, everywhere in Asia. the extension to get to the mobile website is very long and use extensions like ".im, .fm, etc". The accessing to mobile websites are difficult if we here the name and want to access it. Yes, we can use "QRcodes" and "Color codes", but if we hear the name or say the name, we cant just write it down and give it to our friends and clients. When speaking to customers and clients over the phone, we want to give them a nice name to remember.



When you are refering to iphone, it is a complete failure. It is a mockup of what Japanese phones did 3 years ago. As for touchscreen, that was done on mobile phones here in 1998! Iphone does nothing special more than Japanese and Korean phones. We have already been having "Bluetooth", GPS (3d), "PCsite viewer" (costs much more to access). There will be no takeover of mobile phones from iPhone technology. Take a look at these phones in Japan:

NTT DoCoMo:
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/articles/0704/23/news041.html

AU by KDDI:
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/au/

Softbank (formally Vodafone):
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/softbank/

Most phones have "1seg" technology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1seg
(great television reception. Can show you a sample if there is a request).

Here are some links to mobile websites in Japan:

http://knavi.goo.ne.jp/
http://mobile.yahoo.co.jp/
http://mobile.goo.ne.jp/

Now another thing is that .mobi haters are decreasing the value of people who own .mobi by just an opinion. This is immature and stupid for .mobi haters to state such claims without showing ANY evidence.

And a challenge: come over here to Japan away from your country-hick town where there isnt any internet connection and get your fuzzy, hairy butt over here in Japan and do your research before you make such claims about mobile technology.

About the domain extensions, should I teach you!? No. You are smart to understand extensions. Lets review:

.com - commerce
.org - organization
.pro - professions
.net - network
.us - American
.jp - Japan
.fm - radio stations
.mobi - Mobile websites.............DUH.

Im figuring that the .mobi hater that writes such false claims WITHOUT evidence is trying to buy a .mobi at a reduced price for making such information.



If i see this BS about how .mobi is not good in future business
ONE MORE TIME, i will report it as "disturbing a sale" and you will be given an infraction. Not only what you say decreases sales on DNforum, it is also stealing and disturbing business in the mobile website industry. If you dont like it, go rant on another website. This is for business. Not crying cause you want a reduced price on .mobi extensions.

:-#:

 

[Gerry]

Before people consider flipping mobis...

might want to consider flipping (actually dumping) IDN's in the .com and .net as .cn and .in gear up...

and include the espanol words that are "not espanol" as spain goes IDN in October and that includes all Spanish words...

and .jp is already enjoying it's own identity...

and China (with its nearly 2 billion population) mandates to all its government offices to abandon the use of .com and only use .cn (oops! already did that) and boasts that it will have more computers in the world and .cn registrations in the world than any other extension by the year 2009 (did you ever wonder why China is practically giving away the .cn at 1 yuan which is about 13 cents?)...

and Biadu.com, the largest search engine in China just came out with their .mobi to flip the damn thing? To dupe the majority of its population to sit at home at their computers? I hope the hell the flip baidu.mobi...

and India (with its one billion population) wants to go IDN and use it's native languages and characters...

and everyone flips in their current cell phone to buy the new iPhone...all estimated 3.5 to 4 billion cell phones in use...because why? The iPhone is prettier? Newer?

How long do you think Nokia, Samsung, LG and the others come out with the iPhone Clones? About what, thanksgiving perhaps? Sooner? Already being made?

And with all the above scenarios about to play out...all the IDN's, all the ccTLD's, what might, just might, be the one common thread to tie in all the estimated 3.5-4 billion phones in existence at this very moment and the estimate 7 billion by the year 2010?

What I am going to read on this forum are people saying again what they said 10, 5, 3 and one year ago...7 months ago when I joined this forum, 3 months ago when these very issues were brought up, and less than one week ago when several said, "I could care less what goes on in Asia and the rest of the world."

What I see are members looking at one commercial here, the surface computer there, the new technology roll up plasma screens here, and they immediately spell the doom of mobi...

get out you phone, your pda and go to any of those sites that I mentioned.

Tell me how bad this idea, this notion, this technology, this format sucks.

Hurry and tell me so I can quickly dump my 350 or so mobi's before the sky starts falling.

Actually, a better idea would be for all you idiots that bought mobis, dump them right now. I will pay $5.00 for each LLL, $10 for each developed site.

I will become the dumbest, stupidest idiot of the forum, not to mention the poorest. But you will be out from your mobi's and you can cut your loses now. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I'll write them all off on my taxes and offset the loses with the sales of my .com and all the other domain extensions that I should have never bought had I listened to all the "experts".

 

[Simsi]

I just doubt it's ever going to become a household word.

I think the idea behind .mobi is that it may not need to be.

So far everyone seems to have the opinion that you will need to type it in. The mobile phone companies could well decide to champion a mobile internet where the extension is built in by "default" on mobile devices so you just type in "dnforum" and it takes you to the .mobi version of the site if you are on a mobile device.

That to me is where the potential value lies. I only have one mobi, my brand name, but if the above happens - and I think there is a strong possibility from what I have read - mobi could be huge in time. If it doesn't, I doubt it will be.

But hey, this is what "speculation" is all about. If everyone speculated on the same thing it would become pointless speculating!

I don't quite see why everyone is so upset by what other people think to be honest. You either want to invest or you don't, so why are so many people so bothered about what other people do?

 

[touchring]

Before people consider flipping mobis...

might want to consider flipping (actually dumping) IDN's in the .com and .net as .cn and .in gear up...

and include the espanol words that are "not espanol" as spain goes IDN in October and that includes all Spanish words...

If you want to dump, pls pm me - i do buy IDN .com and .net commercial generics, asians or latin. no adult. single word only - no compound word. for .net only super prime, e.g. finance, forex, cosmetics, etc.

Example of price i am willing to pay and name i buy -
http://www.dnforum.com/showthread.php?p=1192542#post1192542

Hate to burst your bubble (ok, not really) but some "Domainers" are stupid because they are on the other end of that flip.

I don't know for sure, but i believe some are basically churning the volume to attract newbies in the mkt. Those sold for high prices on auction, we never know if there might be some barter trade behind the scene. Those who choose to believe in the auction prices, good luck. I once did when i was a newbie a year and half ago, but i learnt my lesson - there are no rules in this game.

Nevertheless, i do believe that some domainers genuinely believe in dot mobi.

BTW, own any mobis?

Nope, i am in the mobile software biz since the days of WAP, i don't see the logic. I'm also not in the business of quick flipping. So, no point owning one.

 

[DNWizardX9]

my goodness...... here we go again......
ill write this again:

".mobi is not a new technology. It is a way to get to companies mobile website."

I dont know why incompetent people keep writing that .mobi is a failure. it is not.

I too, am a mobile geek (携帯オタク)with many years in the mobile website development industry in Tokyo, Japan. Here, we are more advanced in technology than ".com owners who hate .mobi"'s country. There are hundreds of thousands of mobile websites in Japan, China, everywhere in Asia. the extension to get to the mobile website is very long and use extensions like ".im, .fm, etc". The accessing to mobile websites are difficult if we here the name and want to access it. Yes, we can use "QRcodes" and "Color codes", but if we hear the name or say the name, we cant just write it down and give it to our friends and clients. When speaking to customers and clients over the phone, we want to give them a nice name to remember.



When you are refering to iphone, it is a complete failure. It is a mockup of what Japanese phones did 3 years ago. As for touchscreen, that was done on mobile phones here in 1998! Iphone does nothing special more than Japanese and Korean phones. We have already been having "Bluetooth", GPS (3d), "PCsite viewer" (costs much more to access). There will be no takeover of mobile phones from iPhone technology. Take a look at these phones in Japan:

NTT DoCoMo:
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/articles/0704/23/news041.html

AU by KDDI:
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/au/

Softbank (formally Vodafone):
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/softbank/

Most phones have "1seg" technology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1seg
(great television reception. Can show you a sample if there is a request).

Here are some links to mobile websites in Japan:

http://knavi.goo.ne.jp/
http://mobile.yahoo.co.jp/
http://mobile.goo.ne.jp/

Now another thing is that .mobi haters are decreasing the value of people who own .mobi by just an opinion. This is immature and stupid for .mobi haters to state such claims without showing ANY evidence.

And a challenge: come over here to Japan away from your country-hick town where there isnt any internet connection and get your fuzzy, hairy butt over here in Japan and do your research before you make such claims about mobile technology.

About the domain extensions, should I teach you!? No. You are smart to understand extensions. Lets review:

.com - commerce
.org - organization
.pro - professions
.net - network
.us - American
.jp - Japan
.fm - radio stations
.mobi - Mobile websites.............DUH.

Im figuring that the .mobi hater that writes such false claims WITHOUT evidence is trying to buy a .mobi at a reduced price for making such information.



If i see this BS about how .mobi is not good in future business
ONE MORE TIME, i will report it as "disturbing a sale" and you will be given an infraction. Not only what you say decreases sales on DNforum, it is also stealing and disturbing business in the mobile website industry. If you dont like it, go rant on another website. This is for business. Not crying cause you want a reduced price on .mobi extensions.

:-#:

Regarding the iphone it only effects the U.S. market right now. You can't say its a failure as you live in Japan and don't know current cell phone trends in the U.S...... Yes, the telecoms bribe the government and give us the shittiest phones.

Regarding .mobi - your statements are pathetic...... Why can't they just register a second .jp?

 

[mjnels]

.mobi RIP

just curious, does the domain 970.mobi mean anything to you?

 

[Fearless]

just curious, does the domain 970.mobi mean anything to you?

Should it? 970.com means something to me because I own it.

 

[mjnels]

Should it? 970.com means something to me because I own it.

interesting.

 

[yonimlm]

About the domain extensions, should I teach you!? No. You are smart to understand extensions. Lets review:

.com - commerce
.org - organization
.pro - professions
.net - network
.us - American
.jp - Japan
.fm - radio stations
.mobi - Mobile websites.............DUH.

.pro refers to professionals rather than professions
.fm is Micronesia and is a perfect example of how one sees the hype rather than reality.

Get yourself Re-educated

 

[Gerry]

Yesterday I purchased 114 domains. Only 5 were .mobi.

The rest: 5 .net, 104 .com.

If you can not see the future in anything, then its time to get a new monitor. The one you are viewing must be a little fuzzy.

Should it? 970.com means something to me because I own it.

It means a lot to me...NNN.com = marketability

If you want to dump, pls pm me - i do buy IDN .com and .net commercial generics, asians or latin. no adult. single word only - no compound word. for .net only super prime, e.g. finance, forex, cosmetics, etc.

Example of price i am willing to pay and name i buy -
http://www.dnforum.com/showthread.php?p=1192542#post1192542

Not dumping yet, but I do see some very strange things going on...some wonderful IDN .com and .net in Chinese on the market. Very odd that these would be appearing with asking prices that they are wanting...TOO GOOD which has made me skeptical.

But the announcements and press releases that I see coming out of China leads me to believe that after the Olympics, the push will be on for the IDN and nationwide adoption of .cn. I am of the belief that this will not be optional and that any business or venture doing business in .cn will have to abide by these standards...something like BestBuy.com and BestBuy.cn (only used as an example).

By the way, I'm not dumping my Asian IDN's...I like them to much.

The news coming out of Spain is pretty astounding, in my opinion. They have placed some restrictions on who gets to reg what. So that has me looking at the spanish market pretty heavy.

...so why are so many people so bothered about what other people do?

It is apparent that many feel the bastard child .mobi should have been aborted before it left the womb.

Every time something new hits the market, it is the end of .mobi. Just last week it was the UMPC. Hell, that has been on the market now for nearly two years, sales have been dismal, it still won't fit in your pocket, and you still can't talk on it.

The same for these phones that you can use to pay for your goods rather than carry money. Scanners scan your phone and you're done. New technology? No. Been in use now in Japan for awhile. Is this technology a household word? In the US, no. Will it be? Wow, without a doubt. American corporations (like coke, pepsi machines) and numerous others don't want to put out the capital to invest in these new technologies here in the US. I understand it is in use in test markets.

By the way, I am still waiting on the beer vending machines here in the US.

Why has the UMPC been a flop (not a flip)? Because people don't need it and are not going to turn loose of their phones. I'm driving down the street seeing kids at the school bus stop at 630 am talking on the phone. Who in the hell are they talking to...other kids. Microsoft has pumped a ton of money into UMPC and the TouchPack software. Touch Screen is not new. Looks like Jobs bested gates again getting a popular product to market. Not one that is just popular, but usable.

Hey, we can sit here and hash this out among us, but there is no changing trends. The iPhone is just another phone to hit the market.

As for .mobi being household name? Not here, but in India it is all the rage with the younger crowd. It seems to be popular in the Asian countries and India and is spreading towards Europe and some of the African nations.

As typical, here in the US we seem to be a little slower getting the new technology.

 

[Poker]

If i see this BS about how .mobi is not good in future business
ONE MORE TIME, i will report it as "disturbing a sale" and you will be given an infraction. Not only what you say decreases sales on DNforum, it is also stealing and disturbing business in the mobile website industry.
:-#:

Mobile, it really says a lot about how convinced you are in the strength of the extension when you are worried about people disturbing sales in a non sales thread and even disturbing the entire mobile website business itself by simply posting their opinion on one domain forum.

If you dont like it, go rant on another website. This is for business. Not crying cause you want a reduced price on .mobi extensions.
:-#:

Ranting? Crying? Take alook at your own post genius. BTW, those of us calling .mobi a lot of hype aren't looking for bargain mobi's, we're looking for some common sense coming from the charlatans that keep pumping it.

 

[Simsi]

The same for these phones that you can use to pay for your goods rather than carry money. Scanners scan your phone and you're done. New technology? No. Been in use now in Japan for awhile. Is this technology a household word? In the US, no. Will it be? Wow, without a doubt. American corporations (like coke, pepsi machines) and numerous others don't want to put out the capital to invest in these new technologies here in the US. I understand it is in use in test markets.

LOL...I hope you are right...I went domaining on NFC a while back

PS. Near Field Communication in case anyone was wondering. Worth looking into