Heh, I saw this and recalled back to the auction at the last DomainFest, where I believe it was Taxicab.com or Taxicabs.com that was in the auction with min bid $40k and no one grabbed it. If I had the money I would have gotten it but it was literally just out of reach financially for me.
Anyways, here's my stance: .com is to extensions like Google is to search. There are tons of different search engines out there, including niche ones (the ".mobi"s of search), barely used ones (the ".name", etc.), and of course Yahoo and MSN trailing Google by a mile like they have for eons. My prediction is that other extensions will affect the value/prices of .com the same time that other search engines will affect the success of Google. In other words, don't hold your breath.
I personally think this is ICANN's way to incite stupid unknowledged companies and investors to throw their money away, the same way that new extensions like .im (anyone remember the buzz over that one on here?) and the like do to domain investors every time they come out. That's not to say EVERYONE doing it will lose money. Just like someone probably got poker.im, travel.im, etc., someone will undoubtedly get a really solid word or set of letters such that they can make their money back and possibly some profit. But it will be a tiny percentage of the companies that start these extensions, and look at what 100+ non-.com extensions have done to the value of .com over the past 10+ years...anything? Anything at all?
I would sooner worry about the downward spiraling economy and its continuing affect on domains and what people will pay for them. That HAS been affecting domain prices and will continue to.
