.mobi dotMobi's top ten trends for 2013

[freeflow]

With 2013 underway, dotMobi's marketing manager Martin Clancy has identified some key trends for the year ahead from a mobile web perspective.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/dotmobi-s-top-ten-trends-for-2013/020426

 

[accent]

Did he mention that Afilias (who owns the .Mobi registry) is contracted to provide the back-end support for the competing .Mobile application by Dish co.???

To Afilias/dotMobi marketing means strange things.

 

[FPForum]

Interesting article. But I still think .Mobi is dead

 

[freeflow]

Interesting article. But I still think .Mobi is dead

@FPForum I agree with you that .mobi is dead for the time being, for domainers. But I think this is not the case for new developers in the mobile space. Maybe the interest for .mobi will come back in the future, for domainers if the mobile web becomes as big as predicted. I know you don't need a .mobi domain for a mobile website. But if the .com is already registered (and it usually is) what tld will be the second choice? A .net .org etc. or a tld that has some relationship to mobile? Even if it's only the name....

 

[accent]

Interesting article. But I still think .Mobi is dead

There is far less speculator ownership of Mobi domains - as a percentage of total domains registered - than any other gTLD extension. With a million Mobi's reg'ed there are plenty all-premium LLLs and, last I looked some NNNs available.

This market inbalance will eventually correct itself, although whether that is by the others falling (as a result of the new gTLDs) or Mobi rising I won't predict.

Nobody is going around saying ".Biz is dead" or ".Me is dead". The Mobi registry angered domainers with their inept and over-aggressive response to the Sedo auction mess-up and then by abandoning their promises, in particular the trustmark. Domainers responded by dumping their holdings. Aftermarket prices fell 95%.

End-users do not care what happened with a Sedo auction years ago.

 

[carob]

But if the .com is already registered (and it usually is) what tld will be the second choice?

One that is recognisable, familiar, memorable.

And .mobi loses on all three accounts - it is a poor choice and you also don't want to give the impression of just being mobile.

.me or .tv or .info are better choices for development.

But the total number of .mobi domains that are currently registered does seem to go up a bit every month according to Hosterstats. It isn't a cheap domain to register or renew, so it is a nice successful cash cow for Afilias, just not for domainers. Or are a lot of the 1m registrations just reserved names?

 

[freeflow]

Nobody is going around saying ".Biz is dead" or ".Me is dead".

This is a very interesting point. I've always been wondering why .mobi was so heavily criticized by so many domainers. Maybe it was because many domainers were worried in that it could become a threat to .com. I know no one is worried today, but old habits are hard to break. Or maybe it’s a mix of the past worries and the fact that the mobile web will be bigger than the stationary web, that keeps the criticism alive.

 

[accent]

This is a very interesting point. I've always been wondering why .mobi was so heavily criticized by so many domainers.

I think it started before .Mobi was released because of perceived efforts to force .Mobi on mobile users. The "one internet" people objected, then the .Com people piled on.

But, again, the real problem was the registry, brilliant at first, but stupid squared when confronted with the Sedo auction.