.mobi Asked guys working in cell phone store "do you know what .MOBI is?" - Discouraging...

[MeanerDomainer]

They said that they did not know what .mobi is. Neither of them. One would hope that people selling smart phones would know... Although the sample size of my test is, admittedly, so small that it is statistically insignifficant, the result is still discouraging.
I plan to repeat the test at some mall kiosks sometime soon...

 

[scandiman]

I asked some guys at the cell phone store for a battery for my Nokia N95 - discouraging.

 

[MeanerDomainer]

I asked some guys at the cell phone store for a battery for my Nokia N95 - discouraging.

More irrelevant than discouraging, unless, of course, you left out some pertinent details...

 

[labrocca]

So did they not know what a battery was or simply didn't carry your battery in the store for sale? It's a huge difference and your reply stinks of being a strawman argument completely unrelated.

I plan to repeat the test at some mall kiosks sometime soon...

My guess is you'll get the same results. Ask everyone you know that isn't a domainer and they'll probably say the same thing.

 

[hawkeye]

... Ask everyone you know that isn't a domainer and they'll probably say the same thing.

and probably the same results too with .biz, .info, .ws, .me, .tel, etc, etc. And not only in a cell phone store!

So the point of this experiment is...???? Or is this same experiment being done with 'all' extensions?

 

[MeanerDomainer]

and probably the same results too with .biz, .info, .ws, .me, .tel, etc, etc. And not only in a cell phone store!

So the point of this experiment is...???? Or is this same experiment being done with 'all' extensions?

I wasn't planning on testing with other extensions. Sounds like a good idea, though. My guess would be that the recognition of at least .info would be higher, but who knows.
Expanding it to other extensions would required increasing the number of stores for best results (only one extension per employee to reduce potential for "contamination").
Would be intesting to perform on other segments of the population too. And also ask the subjects if they know what m.domain.com does.

The point of the experiment was that I was hoping that at least people who work with smart phones and cell phones would know what a .mobi is. (And again, my sample size so far was too small to reach any real statistically relevant conclusion).
In case you are wondeing, yes, I do own some .mobis, so not a mobi hater.

 

[SpareDomains]

just call bob parsons at godaddy and see what the price would be to put Danica in a .mobi jumpsuit for their superbowl commercials and then send the bill to Welcome to dotMobi | dotMobi

 

[Keith]

And my bank teller should be able to plan my financial future too. I mean after all, tellers work in financial institutions so they should be industry experts

Sounds silly right?

 

[snoop]

My guess would be that the recognition of at least .info would be higher, but who knows.

Maybe .info is better known, though it is a bit like debating which is the better car, a 1973 Lada or a 1965 Peel Trident.

At the end of the day most people won't have a clue on .mobi and probably never will. At least the average guy on the street knows .com means "the internet".

 

[MeanerDomainer]

And my bank teller should be able to plan my financial future too. I mean after all, tellers work in financial institutions so they should be industry experts

Sounds silly right?

Sounds silly and irrelevant to me.
I was testing .mobi awareness among people whom one would hope be aware of .mobi. After all, you don't want only so-called "industry experts" to be aware of .mobi, right?

 

[scandiman]

Sounds silly and irrelevant to me.
I was testing .mobi awareness among people whom one would hope be aware of .mobi. After all, you don't want only so-called "industry experts" to be aware of .mobi, right?

Prior to the iPhone when I went to a cell phone store to discuss browsing the internet on my phone I would usually get a blank stare. These so called "industry experts" are typically nothing of the sort, just retail sales foot soldiers who typically don't know much more beyond the managerial talking points, eager to find a better job. Sort of like the "geniuses" at the Apple store LOL. Took the geniuses an hour and a half to tell me if the new mac mini server with 2 hard drives (but no DVD drive) could be set up as a RAID 1 and how to make it happen. The first challenge was finding a genius who knew what a RAID was, only one in the store understood what I was asking.

Labrocca, to your question of whether or not they knew what a battery was, my point was they didn't know what a N95 was. Since they didn't sell it they had no clue about anything beyond their own inventory.

 

[u8l2]

When i got back from norway i went shopping in vancouver for a new cellphone contract. the store manager at telus didnt know what a sim card was. i later found out they hardwire them into there phones. morons

 

[MeanerDomainer]

Prior to the iPhone when I went to a cell phone store to discuss browsing the internet on my phone I would usually get a blank stare. These so called "industry experts" are typically nothing of the sort, just retail sales foot soldiers who typically don't know much more beyond the managerial talking points, eager to find a better job. Sort of like the "geniuses" at the Apple store LOL. Took the geniuses an hour and a half to tell me if the new mac mini server with 2 hard drives (but no DVD drive) could be set up as a RAID 1 and how to make it happen. The first challenge was finding a genius who knew what a RAID was, only one in the store understood what I was asking.

Labrocca, to your question of whether or not they knew what a battery was, my point was they didn't know what a N95 was. Since they didn't sell it they had no clue about anything beyond their own inventory.

Just for clarification, I put the words industry experts inside quotation marks because I don't consider bank tellers to be "industry experts", neither do I consider some random guys working in a cell phone store to be industry experts, but they work with phones perhaps as much as 40 hr/week, so I was hoping that at least they would know what .mobi is...

Maybe this (admittely somewhat "loose") anology could work: You are a distributor of a new race car tire that you have been trying to market for a couple of years. You go to a local race track and ask a couple of guys who work there if they have ever heard of your brand of tires and they give you a blank look. Of you are a running shoe distributor and ask a couple of running coaches and they have never heard of your shoe brand. Certainly not "encouraging" by most people's standards.

 

[scandiman]

Just for clarification, I put the words industry experts inside quotation marks because I don't consider bank tellers to be "industry experts", neither do I consider some random guys working in a cell phone store to be industry experts, but they work with phones perhaps as much as 40 hr/week, so I was hoping that at least they would know what .mobi is...

Maybe this (admittely somewhat "loose") anology could work: You are a distributor of a new race car tire that you have been trying to market for a couple of years. You go to a local race track and ask a couple of guys who work there if they have ever heard of your brand of tires and they give you a blank look. Of you are a running shoe distributor and ask a couple of running coaches and they have never heard of your shoe brand. Certainly not "encouraging" by most people's standards.

So you did your little sample at the cell phone store and the clerks didn't know about a domain extension. What is it you are concluding?

A- The cell phone sales people are ignorant because they don't know about a domain extension for mobile web; or...

B- .mobi is a bad investment for domainers because the cell phone sales people you talked to were ignorant of .mobi; or...

C- something else.

Finding a situation "discouraging" isn't a conclusion, it's an emotional response. What is it you are being discouraged from doing?

 

[MeanerDomainer]

an emotional response

:hehe: Most comments and questions about .mobi tend to get an emotional response.

As I said, the sample size is too small to be statistically meaningful, so it is too early to attemt to conclude anything at all, but I personally don't see anything encouraging in the result of my very limited survey. Hopefully I will get around to surveying a few additional spots. If I do, I will try to remember to report the results here.

 

[scandiman]

:hehe: Most comments and questions about .mobi tend to get an emotional response.

As I said, the sample size is too small to be statistically meaningful, so it is too early to attemt to conclude anything at all, but I personally don't see anything encouraging in the result of my very limited survey. Hopefully I will get around to surveying a few additional spots. If I do, I will try to remember to report the results here.

encouraging or discouraging about what? To do or not to do what?

 

[MeanerDomainer]

encouraging or discouraging about what? To do or not to do what?

Discouraged about the prospects for .mobi. As has probaby been beaten to death in other threads, .mobi may have a limited window of opportunity to reach "critical mass" before m.domain.com and device sensing take it's place and make it largely obsolete...

 

[scandiman]

Discouraged about the prospects for .mobi. As has probaby been beaten to death in other threads, .mobi may have a limited window of opportunity to reach "critical mass" before m.domain.com and device sensing take it's place and make it largely obsolete...

We agree about something, it has been beaten to death in other threads, no sense rehashing it here.

 

[labrocca]

and probably the same results too with .biz, .info, .ws, .me, .tel, etc, etc. And not only in a cell phone store!

Yup. Helps makes the point mobi is just as unknown and low valued as .me and .tel.

Guarantee Scandiman that if Keithmt wrote up this thread stating how he sampled 3 cell stores and the clerks knew what Mobi was that you would be all over it as "proof" that mobi is penetrating the mindset and marketplace.

Sorry but the fact that people who should be the TARGET AUDIENCE and DAILY SELLERS of the "mobi ready" devices would have a clue about the "mobile internet" that mobi is trying to create.

Fact remains the mobile internet is an illusion created by mobi fans. One can go back 3 years in this forum to see how many threads talked about the "mobile internet". No such thing.

Mobi has no critical mass building up and no future potential. Where it stands today is where it's going. It had a year or so of domainer popularity and hype and since then it's just another extension with a loyal fanbase holding onto their domains renewing them, wasting money, and praying it turns around. Mobi domainers have convinced themselves their theories are going to come true when every month that passes it's becoming more evident they were wrong. Many have jumped off the mobi train but a few hold out refusing to admit how very wrong they were about the market.

It's all rather sad imho.

 

[scandiman]

Fact remains the mobile internet is an illusion created by mobi fans. One can go back 3 years in this forum to see how many threads talked about the "mobile internet". No such thing

Well, if it will help you better understand here are some links for you:

Mobile Web - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

W3C Mobile Web Initiative

and some conferences you may want to attend when new dates come available:

Mobile Web - Home

Mobile 2.0 Conference Silicon Valley

Mobile 2.0 Conference

 

[Keith]

Guarantee Scandiman that if Keithmt wrote up this thread stating how he sampled 3 cell stores and the clerks knew what Mobi was that you would be all over it as "proof" that mobi is penetrating the mindset and marketplace.


Fact remains the mobile internet is an illusion created by mobi fans. One can go back 3 years in this forum to see how many threads talked about the "mobile internet". No such thing.

Funny stuff!

No such thing as the "mobile internet"??? So it must be the "internet on mobile" then...hmmm

 

[exsedo]

There is no such thing as " mobile internet ".

There is just one internet which has more than one avenue for access.

 

[Kate]

The point of the experiment was that I was hoping that at least people who work with smart phones and cell phones would know what a .mobi is.

It's no surprising given that the cellular industry has not embraced .mobi.

Mobi domainers have convinced themselves their theories are going to come true when every month that passes it's becoming more evident they were wrong. Many have jumped off the mobi train but a few hold out refusing to admit how very wrong they were about the market.

Well, the same sentence could be rephrased with another extension like... you know, an extension that has been around well before .mobi :tri:

There is no such thing as " mobile internet ".

There is just one internet which has more than one avenue for access.

:kickass:

 

[scandiman]

There is no such thing as " mobile internet ".

There is just one internet which has more than one avenue for access.

Completely agree from a technical perspective. It's all the same internet. The more common reference for mobile is mobile web, mainly in reference to websites designed for small screened devices, but it reaches beyond that to deal with the mobile context like location based services or camera phones, click to call, etc.

 

[MeanerDomainer]

Completely agree from a technical perspective. It's all the same internet. The more common reference for mobile is mobile web, mainly in reference to websites designed for small screened devices, but it reaches beyond that to deal with the mobile context like location based services or camera phones, click to call, etc.

We agree here too, absloutely no doubt that the potential for the "mobile internet" (NOT just the "same old internet", but the internet re-formatted for best usability over mobile devices AND enhanced with the additional capabilities offered by mobile devices) is big, given that eventually (if not already) more instances of internet access will occur over mobile devices than all other types of devices. Just doubtful that .mobi will be a part of it to any signifficant degree.
Superbowl ads are on sale this year. As someone already pointed out, a .mobi ad could not hurt recognition. The registry could even recoup the cost in renewal and new reg fees, who knows. But they probably have to do something and soon if they hope to be a signifficant part of the "mobile internet".

BTW, I think that mobile browsers that will reformat any website to fit the device will replace .mobi, m. and all other such approaches, IF bandwith stays "unlimited". However, I also think that carriers will start charging based on usage more than they currently do...