.mobi Good news for mobile, nothing good for Mobi

[karamba]

CNN is set to re-launch its CNN mobile service this week, and has secured car company Lexus as its first advertiser on the platform.

CNN Mobile is re-launching as the news network's first direct-to-consumer WAP service, and will feature a searchable 14-day news archive with over 2,000 stories, as well as a news SMS alert service covering categories like business, weather, entertainment and lifestyle.

The service, which first launched in 1999, will be available in...

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... Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America to all handsets by entering cnnmobile.com.

Lexus will have banner adverts on the mobile site for its Hybrid vehicle at launch and also have a pre and post roll advertising on the service's 'World News Now' two minute video update, which will be available to all 3G users of CNN Mobile. The advertising deal, which was developed by media agency Zed, will run for the first month of the new service.

I will also add that speech is about cnnmobile.com
Not cnn.mobi

 

[scandiman]

Actually, in rebuttal to your thread title, at this stage, any good news for mobile is good news for .mobi. Any increase in the consumer use of small handheld devices to access the internet is an increase in the primary user base of .mobi sites. CNN sees this as an important market and is making moves to be a leader. That's great news for .mobi IMO.

 

[thebiffenator]

Actuly I saw CnnMoney.mobi advertised in Business 2.0 magazine I think it was the january or december edition. Like Scandiman said, any good news for the mobile industry is good news for .mobi

 

[mobidick]

The mobile ecosystem needs companies like CNN to brand and promote their own mobile content, which will increase consumer interest in signing up for data plans, bringing down data plan prices, and increasing market pressure against walled gardens toward a more open mobile internet supported by mobile advertising. There's already mounting pressure from cities and companies like Google with grand plans of building free wifi networks, threatening to bypass cell networks altogether.

Of course it is even better if these content providers promote their brand under the .mobi banner - which in time, more and more will, like we're already seeing from the likes of BMW, NBA, Statefarm, BofA, etc. Why CNN doesn't use / promote CNN.MOBI is puzzling, but then it's still early in the game, so let's just give them time... or we could fire them some emails letting them know their presence is urgently requested in the .mobi ecosystem.

in the meantime, we have a golden opportunity to develop our own .mobi presence and be ahead of the curve when the flood gates open! Back to work...

 

[karamba]

I cant understand why it's good for mobi? cnn has mobi site but they dont promote it and even dont write about it anywhere (only that articles in the beggining).

 

[scandiman]

I cant understand why it's good for mobi? cnn has mobi site but they dont promote it and even dont write about it anywhere (only that articles in the beggining).

Sure it would be even better if CNN was talking about their .mobi site instead, but that will likely come in time.

More important IMO is that they are pushing forward to expand the mobile web user experience. They see it as an emerging market and are investing resources to it. Add in the other companies doing the same and this will continue to grow the user base, which will garner increased investment by other companies, which will draw in even more users, and the cycle goes on and on. Add in the convergence of better mobile devices and the faster connection speeds and it gets even more interesting. All this money and attention to the mobile web user is building the .mobi user base who are customers outside your front door. Before long, they will be coming in. Have patience, this is still very new.

 

[whitebark]

Toyota sold a record number of cars in Canada last year. That is good for Ford because Toyota sells vehicles like they do.

See the logic here? I don't, so when the world's largest news agency doesn't use .mobi for its mobile content that suggests something other than the news being good for .mobi the extension.

 

[scandiman]

Toyota sold a record number of cars in Canada last year. That is good for Ford because Toyota sells vehicles like they do.

See the logic here? I don't, so when the world's largest news agency doesn't use .mobi for its mobile content that suggests something other than the news being good for .mobi the extension.

I admire your attempt to twist my perspective but you would need to go back to about 1910 to use your example in relation to mobile web use. In the early years of the automobile industry, customers had to be sold not only on what brand of car to buy, but whether or not to buy one at all. When Ford sold more cars it was creating a greater market for competing brands.

CNN is helping to expand the marketplace of mobile web users, just as Ford helped build the auto industry. Toyota exists and has succeeded because they have done a better job of meeting user expectations. Similarly, .mobi with its coding standards is an exceptional branding opportunity that will grow in popularity with mobile web users as their ever increasing numbers discover these .mobi sites that look great on their small devices. It is all very new and will take time.

 

[mobidick]

I cant understand why it's good for mobi? cnn has mobi site but they dont promote it and even dont write about it anywhere (only that articles in the beggining).

Who knows - maybe they'll start using it tomorrow? Since CNN first launched a mobile service in 1999, before .mobi was even conceived, it may be that they've already committed to a certain branding campaign; or maybe it's just a matter of timing?

At this point everyone has heard of CNN, but only a fraction of those access mobile internet, and even a smaller fraction knows about .mobi... but that is changing quickly IMO. The pond (cellphone users) is less than 10% covered in lillypads (mobile internet users), but their numbers are growing exponentially.

Since .mobi is associated with mobile, not only will many megacorps adopt a .mobi brand, as we've already seen happening, simply because .mobi has a short catchy ring to it as well as the implication to end-users that it will be properly formatted for their small mobile screens...

but I also forsee a host of new mobile-centered ventures (like my own) starting up using .mobi because a)it best describes what they are about to their target market, b)the .com is not available or affordable to them, and c)mobile internet represents a truly huge untapped market quite distinct from the pc internet market.

So the more that the mobile internet grows, and mobile advertising, the more that .mobi will gain exposure and attractiveness too for new mobile content publishers. This is even more true if mobile search engines respect the .mobi tld and give .mobi sites a boost in their mobile listings.

my 2cents.mobi

 

[karamba]

Sure i wish u all were right and soon we would see cnn.mobi and etc.
but till now i cant say that i see any mobi advertising, so by now we need not news about mobile internet and so on, but about .mobi..
sry, eng isnt my native language and somethings i cant tell right

 

[mjnels]

I admire your attempt to twist my perspective but you would need to go back to about 1910 to use your example in relation to mobile web use. In the early years of the automobile industry, customers had to be sold not only on what brand of car to buy, but whether or not to buy one at all. When Ford sold more cars it was creating a greater market for competing brands.

CNN is helping to expand the marketplace of mobile web users, just as Ford helped build the auto industry. Toyota exists and has succeeded because they have done a better job of meeting user expectations. Similarly, .mobi with its coding standards is an exceptional branding opportunity that will grow in popularity with mobile web users as their ever increasing numbers discover these .mobi sites that look great on their small devices. It is all very new and will take time.

bingo!

great explanations all around scandiman, i see logic is alive and well with some people here..

basically, the mobile web is set to explode no matter what. WITH or WITHOUT mobi.... all the mTLD needs to do is piggyback onto the mobile web boom and create the mobi "brand" successfully.

therefore, anything moblile web related at this point IS good for .mobi....im not sure i'd have as much faith if it was not a sponsored TLD.. but just like us, the mTLD is watching whats going on in the mobile world and thinking of ways that .MOBI can benefit from it...

a lot of people still think the .MOBI extention itself is competing with the mobile web.... simply untrue, its all relatively new stuff and .MOBI is just coming along for the ride..

 

[goodkarmaco]

Yes,.

Scandiman, your recent arrival here and your many, many fine posts are a real plus for us all at Namepros. Thks!

 

[rosh86]

nice thinking chaps ...

 

[labrocca]

Toyota sold a record number of cars in Canada last year. That is good for Ford because Toyota sells vehicles like they do.

See the logic here? I don't, so when the world's largest news agency doesn't use .mobi for its mobile content that suggests something other than the news being good for .mobi the extension.

lol...don't even bother with trying to give the mobi fiends any logic..they only want to hear one thing.. "mobi is great and your investment was awesome"

No amount of actual logical debate will sway them. They are committed at this point to mobi. It's starting to feel like the Manson family has become domainers in here. MOBI MOBI MOBI!

For what it's worth...this news imho is more of the same with major companies dismissing the idea of mobi. Here we have one of the top-tier news agencies and they passed on .mobi. They were most likely aware of the extension and whoever made the decision simply was wise enough to stick with the tried and true .com. It's king...mobile content or not. Wise move imho for CNN.

 

[mjnels]

lol...don't even bother with trying to give the mobi fiends any logic..they only want to hear one thing.. "mobi is great and your investment was awesome"

No amount of actual logical debate will sway them. They are committed at this point to mobi. It's starting to feel like the Manson family has become domainers in here. MOBI MOBI MOBI!

For what it's worth...this news imho is more of the same with major companies dismissing the idea of mobi. Here we have one of the top-tier news agencies and they passed on .mobi. They were most likely aware of the extension and whoever made the decision simply was wise enough to stick with the tried and true .com. It's king...mobile content or not. Wise move imho for CNN.

heh.. OH NO its all over because cnn doesnt have a mobi site (currently)!!!!

were doomed!

wait, fox news has one - does that mean we're still ok?

 

[karamba]

lol...don't even bother with trying to give the mobi fiends any logic..they only want to hear one thing.. "mobi is great and your investment was awesome"

No amount of actual logical debate will sway them. They are committed at this point to mobi. It's starting to feel like the Manson family has become domainers in here. MOBI MOBI MOBI!

For what it's worth...this news imho is more of the same with major companies dismissing the idea of mobi. Here we have one of the top-tier news agencies and they passed on .mobi. They were most likely aware of the extension and whoever made the decision simply was wise enough to stick with the tried and true .com. It's king...mobile content or not. Wise move imho for CNN.

its kinda what i tried to say

 

[scandiman]

Thanks for the kudos mjnels and goodkarmaco. I may be a recent arrival to NamePros but I'm an old timer to domains. I was making my first registrations in '91, sold my first domain in '92 or '93 (I forget now) and certainly wish I did more with it back then but $100 reg fee per domain was a lot of money for me back then and I was overly consumed with "making it" in my "real" career. Still did OK though and have earned many times more than I've spent to date.

I've kept my ear to the rail all this time for new domain opportunities and .mobi is the first thing to come along in 15 years that even remotely resembles the early 90's and I wasn't going to miss this one. Certainly it is a risky endeavor but nothing ventured, nothing gained. These are exciting times and I'm glad to have found this place where we can reasonably debate the issues and contribute to the success of .mobi.

I still remember today how many seasoned business people in the early 90's couldn't understand the opportunity of the internet or even the need to register their company (or industry) domain names. Yet now with .mobi many industry leaders and major companies have moved quickly to acquire domains and a few have already been built. To complain that a major corporation hasn't yet built out a .mobi site reveals a complete lack of understanding in just how slow the wheels of change turn in most large companies. Upper management sets some goals which gets filtered to the product people, the I.T. people and the marketing people who now have to collaborate to make it all work. It can take years in some cases. We should actually be extremely excited that some are already out, it shows just how important some major corps have considered the .mobi tld is in their plans for providing services to mobile web users. Exciting times my friends, enjoy the ride.

 

[Tippy]

...opportunity that will grow in popularity with mobile web users as their ever increasing numbers discover these .mobi sites that look great on their small devices. It is all very new and will take time.

Mobile devices are getting bigger/smarter so they can handle full fledged, content full, sites... thus in time you wont see rinky dink sites, you'll be able to see full blown sites properly.

 

[scandiman]

Mobile devices are getting bigger/smarter so they can handle full fledged, content full, sites... thus in time you wont see rinky dink sites, you'll be able to see full blown sites properly.

All I can say is prepare to zoom and scroll or keep a magnifying glass in your pocket.

It's starting to feel like the Manson family has become domainers in here. MOBI MOBI MOBI!

Wow, I have never been compared to a murderous cult before. Even that is a low blow for you labrocca.

You bemoan the lack of logical debate and then resort to name calling? Whatever.

 

[dag]

lol...don't even bother with trying to give the mobi fiends any logic..they only want to hear one thing.. "mobi is great and your investment was awesome"

Most of us are willing to listen to logical arguments -- unfortunately, what he gave us was "illogic." As Scandiman correctly pointed out already, the car comparison would only work in terms of emerging technologies, and his example of Ford automobiles as automotive technology was emerging was a very accurate one.

I agree that there are .mobi supporters who blind themselves to anything not completely positive -- I'm not one of those. Similarly, there are several in the anti-.mobi camp who are so eager to see it fail that they'll say anything, no matter how inaccurate, illogical, or simply uninformed, to bring out the negatives. Whitebark is one of those, and you sometimes straddle that line yourself, Labrocca, although I've seen more balanced opinions from you from time to time. :imho: