.mobi .mobi dead or .mobi on NP dead ?

[tony_np]

I visited here every day.But seems no more news here.

.mobi dead or .mobi on NP dead ?

 

[snoop]

To say .mobi is dead is only a very slight exaggeration, it is a bit like saying .biz is dead, ok some people still speculate in it but it is as good as dead.

The new theme now with .mobi speculators is talking of development, that is what happens when there is no money left in anything else, you take down the goalposts in favour of a another more opaque scoring method.

Here is an interesting comparison,

In 2007 dnjournal reported 44 .mobi names in their global contenders sales chart (44% of the global contenders chart)

In 2008 dnjournal it was 10 .mobi names in their global conteders sales chart (10%)

In 2009 dnjournal they have 1 .mobi name in their global contenders sales chart (1%)

You can see how sales have shrunk even compared to other less than stellar extension that make up that chart (.net, .org .info, .biz etc)

Admittedly mtld seems to have given up on the auctions though still the extensions performance is lame.

Domaining is not the sole method of evaluating an extension.

Regards...jmcc

It is when you are a domainer!

 

[cityforums.com]

To say .mobi is dead is only a very slight exaggeration, it is a bit like saying .biz is dead, ok some people still speculate in it but it is as good as dead.

The new theme now with .mobi speculators is talking of development, that is what happens when there is no money left in anything else, you take down the goalposts in favour of a another more opaque scoring method.

Here is an interesting comparison,

In 2007 dnjournal reported 44 .mobi names in their global contenders sales chart (44% of the global contenders chart)

In 2008 dnjournal it was 10 .mobi names in their global conteders sales chart (10%)

In 2009 dnjournal they have 1 .mobi name in their global contenders sales chart (1%)

You can see how sales have shrunk even compared to other less than stellar extension that make up that chart (.net, .org .info, .biz etc)

Admittedly mtld seems to have given up on the auctions though still the extensions performance is lame.




It is when you are a domainer!

beautiful post ... Snoop made a statement and backed it up with facts ... thank you Sir Snoop.

please if you are going to respond to Snoop do it like he did ... no personal insults or insinuations ... just the facts.

 

[scandiman]

The new theme now with .mobi speculators is talking of development, that is what happens when there is no money left in anything else, you take down the goalposts in favour of a another more opaque scoring method.

Snoop, there's nothing new about it, I and others have been discussing development since '06. The problem is you've been too busy trying to declare .mobi is dead to notice.

 

[headstart]

Well, part of the question was if .MOBI is dead on NP and yes it is. It's getting a bit scary now if the
.MOBI community has withdrawn themselves in the holy .MOBI church. and we all know where that is.
You can still join the .MOBI community but please do not talk about things outside the church, where the bad guys are. I think there is a word for that kind of communities but I won't say it here.
Don't y'alll see that you are not helping dot .MOBI by not posting here. You all ought to promote .MOBI
wherever you can, despite some people overhere who are bashing the TLD. You all are making a big
mistake by not posting here anymore.

 

[-REECE-]

Oh wow, I had never crunched the numbers.. Didn't realize it was that popular in '07. You're right though Snoop, development really is the only thing left for the extension at this point imho. Too much hype, too many promises that weren't delivered breaking the trust of even many of the faithful, a recession that has hit speculative investments very hard...

If it does rank better for mobile sites and assuming it stays that way, the domains may have value in the future when the mobile web becomes more popular. It does seem to rank better at present on both Google and Yahoo for mobile searches however not much stays the same in the search engine camp and I'm pretty sure if my oberservation is correct, SEOs will exploit it until it's changed as soon as they see potential profit.

To say .mobi is dead is only a very slight exaggeration, it is a bit like saying .biz is dead, ok some people still speculate in it but it is as good as dead.

The new theme now with .mobi speculators is talking of development, that is what happens when there is no money left in anything else, you take down the goalposts in favour of a another more opaque scoring method.

Here is an interesting comparison,

In 2007 dnjournal reported 44 .mobi names in their global contenders sales chart (44% of the global contenders chart)

In 2008 dnjournal it was 10 .mobi names in their global conteders sales chart (10%)

In 2009 dnjournal they have 1 .mobi name in their global contenders sales chart (1%)

You can see how sales have shrunk even compared to other less than stellar extension that make up that chart (.net, .org .info, .biz etc)

Admittedly mtld seems to have given up on the auctions though still the extensions performance is lame.




It is when you are a domainer!

---------- Post added at 08:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:31 AM ----------

I've tried to be more proactive of dealing with trolls (not referring to you headstart) -- you don't see it because deleted posts or threads become invisible to everyone other than mods and NP staff. That having been said, there's a big difference between a troll and someone who disagrees with popular opinion.

Well, part of the question was if .MOBI is dead on NP and yes it is. It's getting a bit scary now if the
.MOBI community has withdrawn themselves in the holy .MOBI church. and we all know where that is.
You can still join the .MOBI community but please do not talk about things outside the church, where the bad guys are. I think there is a word for that kind of communities but I won't say it here.
Don't y'alll see that you are not helping dot .MOBI by not posting here. You all ought to promote .MOBI
wherever you can, despite some people overhere who are bashing the TLD. You all are making a big
mistake by not posting here anymore.

 

[qO_Op]

According to the stats, the Dot MOBI section is the 4th most popular sub-forum at NamePros :lol:

1) Domain Appraisals
79,998 Threads 382,572 Replies

2) Domain Name Discussion
28,694 Threads 348,595 Replies

3) The Break Room
16,571 Threads 196,609 Replies

4) Dot MOBI
13,035 Threads 93,347 Replies

5) Dot TV
12,262 Threads 90,977 Replies

 

[scandiman]

Well, part of the question was if .MOBI is dead on NP and yes it is. It's getting a bit scary now if the
.MOBI community has withdrawn themselves in the holy .MOBI church. and we all know where that is.
You can still join the .MOBI community but please do not talk about things outside the church, where the bad guys are. I think there is a word for that kind of communities but I won't say it here.
Don't y'alll see that you are not helping dot .MOBI by not posting here. You all ought to promote .MOBI
wherever you can, despite some people overhere who are bashing the TLD. You all are making a big
mistake by not posting here anymore.

If this place can ever get beyond the ongoing debate threads like this one then NP would have half a chance but I doubt the discussion can move beyond it. Besides the fact that posts like yours and others continue to suggest .mobi enthusiasts are religious fanatics, attempts like my own to share and discuss serious .mobi projects like our hotel reservations project fall mostly on deaf ears here. There's only so many hours in a day, discussing .mobi here is similar to a domainer discussing domains in an anti-cybersquatting community who mostly hates domainers. Things never get beyond the arguments and people can't take care of serious business so they move on.

 

[-REECE-]

#3 in terms of replies per thread

According to the stats, the Dot MOBI section is the 4th most popular sub-forum at NamePros :lol:

1) Domain Appraisals
79,998 Threads 382,572 Replies

2) Domain Name Discussion
28,694 Threads 348,595 Replies

3) The Break Room
16,571 Threads 196,609 Replies

4) Dot MOBI
13,035 Threads 93,347 Replies

5) Dot TV
12,262 Threads 90,977 Replies

 

[Work In Progress]

Heading Off-Road with mobi

mobi may very well be on life support with domainers, so I understand the question....this is a domainer forum, after all. Can't say the word dead, as there is continuing adoption that keeps creeping around. The recent re-buyout of LLL mobis was not done by endusers.

It's funny to see that the majority of domainers still compare this unique TLD to all of the others out there. This really still seems to be the biggest hurdle in this community mobi can't seem to jump over.

The truth is, you can't compare mobi to any other TLD, simply because there are no other TLD's like it. The only other "different" TLD introduced has been .tel, and that’s “it’s own” as well. No real relationship to “standard” TLD's or mobi. It seems to be on it’s own little island, so that’s where we’ll keep it for this discussion.

.com, .net, .org, .info, .co.uk, .de, .gov,.in, .co.in, .cn, .cc, or any of the other CC's or TLD's all have one huge thing in common. They're all designed to be viewed on a PC screen.


My apologies to anyone who has made this analogy prior. I wasn’t around for the early years, so I might have missed it. It just seems to fit so I’ll throw it out to those newer who may be dismayed.


Let's think of these extensions as standard cars. Some of these cars are equivalent to new, high end models, while others are cheaper knock offs or even "used" quality. All of the above mentioned TLD's (cars) are using roads and interstates that have already been built and are well known to the public. It wasn’t always this way, but it has been for years now. .Com (and .net, & .org) paved these roads long ago for all other TLD’s to drive on. There are maps available to those who need them (SE’s) and retail stores at every exit or town (monetization methods). Everything is great as long as you stay on the road.

Now, let’s talk about off-road. Sure, some standard cars have been driven off road, but often get bogged down or stuck in the mud. They can be retro-fitted with lift kits, bigger tires, larger engines, etc. but that takes more funds and extra time / effort to make your vehicle have access to all locations.

Now, along comes this new, off-road vehicle (.mobi), specifically designed to go anywhere. No modifications required. No questions asked. You look at it’s unique design and you know it’s ready to roll off-road. This all wheel drive vehicle only has boundaries in regards to gas stations (Cell towers). Just by looking at it’s nameplate, you know it can travel the already established roads, as well as the off-road circuit.

The biggest obstacle you’ll notice for this new vehicle is the lack of support once you venture off the main road. Not much in the way of population yet, very few “stores” (sites) or people in general. But that is changing. Driving off-road in a vehicle designed for such use is becoming much more popular as people recognize the benefits of using such a vehicle.

Pretty much up to the early enthusiasts who enjoy this new-found freedom to blaze their own trail. Often starting as nothing, a dirt path starts to form. These paths often lead to gravel, then pavement. They have to build their own “stores” in more remote areas, as well as map out the locations for future adventurist’s to follow. Although they do have the advantage of using the already build roads / highways, that’s not their bread and butter. This specialty vehicle will work very well on these roads, but it excels where the “standard” vehicle can’t. Off-road. As the public becomes aware of these off-road paths, they’ll start to utilize them. The downside at this stage is, they’re toll roads (carrier fee’s). You have to pay for this new found freedom. The more people who use these paths, the cheaper the toll will get. At first, they won’t get much. Still a lot of “bad lands” of barren property to go through. But development is going full throttle. New stores are sprouting up and maps are starting to be plotted.

All awhile, the people rolling down the interstates in their Cadillac’s and Mercedes laugh at and scoff the off-roaders, wondering aloud why these people feel a “need” for alternate routes when there are perfectly good routes already established from point A to point B? Just stay on the road and you’ll be fine. Little do they recognize how many actually enjoy driving off-road. The freedom it brings is becoming more popular. Once they get off-road and leave the road restrictions behind, they often have a whole new sense of adventure. Now, things they only had access to while on the road are available off-road as well. Some old timers will retro-fit their vehicles to come along. But these vehicles won’t be easy to identify. They might make it or they might not. It’s driver beware.

Just looking at a .mobi, you’ll know it will work, no questions asked. Yes, it’s still a vehicle, but one designed for a specific purpose.

The entire concept was and still is pretty simple, really. Yet few can see any benefit. DotMobi will continue to be a failure in domainers eyes for quite awhile yet. It simply doesn’t fit the typical domainer model. End users still continue to adopt though, despite what domainers think. Paths are being built. These paths are getting more traffic every month. These paths will soon turn into roads of varying degrees of popularity. In time, there will be few, if any boundaries.

Bottom line is, .mobi has a use. At this still early stage, this use is not favorable to domainers. I can understand the distaste that mobi gives to a typical domainer. Parking is negligible and for the time being, reseller prices are way down as well. Can this change? Sure it can. When might this change happen? Who knows? Might be next month, next year or 5 years down the road. Public awareness is still miniscule. Time and adoption will change this as well. Like everything else, it’s supply and demand. Until the tides turn, I’ll continue to build my stores off-road for the future adventurers who come to visit.

Owning a portfolio of .mobi names means you have two options. Register, park and cross your fingers... renew, park, cross your fingers....rinse and repeat....OR - start developing and adding to the underdeveloped mobile web while enjoying increased traffic and monitization possabilities. I can attest to the fact that both work as described. My "parked" names don't come close to paying for themselves. My developed names certainly cover their own with change to spare.

(sorry for the long winded post. I was on a roll)

 

[Pred]

If this place can ever get beyond the ongoing debate threads like this one then NP would have half a chance but I doubt the discussion can move beyond it. Besides the fact that posts like yours and others continue to suggest .mobi enthusiasts are religious fanatics, attempts like my own to share and discuss serious .mobi projects like our hotel reservations project fall mostly on deaf ears here. There's only so many hours in a day, discussing .mobi here is similar to a domainer discussing domains in an anti-cybersquatting community who mostly hates domainers. Things never get beyond the arguments and people can't take care of serious business so they move on.

yup
rimmed

 

[pchip]

mobi may very well be on life support with domainers, so I understand the question....this is a domainer forum, after all. Can't say the word dead, as there is continuing adoption that keeps creeping around. The recent re-buyout of LLL mobis was not done by endusers.

It's funny to see that the majority of domainers still compare this unique TLD to all of the others out there. This really still seems to be the biggest hurdle in this community mobi can't seem to jump over.

The truth is, you can't compare mobi to any other TLD, simply because there are no other TLD's like it. The only other "different" TLD introduced has been .tel, and that’s “it’s own” as well. No real relationship to “standard” TLD's or mobi. It seems to be on it’s own little island, so that’s where we’ll keep it for this discussion.

.com, .net, .org, .info, .co.uk, .de, .gov,.in, .co.in, .cn, .cc, or any of the other CC's or TLD's all have one huge thing in common. They're all designed to be viewed on a PC screen.


My apologies to anyone who has made this analogy prior. I wasn’t around for the early years, so I might have missed it. It just seems to fit so I’ll throw it out to those newer who may be dismayed.


Let's think of these extensions as standard cars. Some of these cars are equivalent to new, high end models, while others are cheaper knock offs or even "used" quality. All of the above mentioned TLD's (cars) are using roads and interstates that have already been built and are well known to the public. It wasn’t always this way, but it has been for years now. .Com (and .net, & .org) paved these roads long ago for all other TLD’s to drive on. There are maps available to those who need them (SE’s) and retail stores at every exit or town (monetization methods). Everything is great as long as you stay on the road.

Now, let’s talk about off-road. Sure, some standard cars have been driven off road, but often get bogged down or stuck in the mud. They can be retro-fitted with lift kits, bigger tires, larger engines, etc. but that takes more funds and extra time / effort to make your vehicle have access to all locations.

Now, along comes this new, off-road vehicle (.mobi), specifically designed to go anywhere. No modifications required. No questions asked. You look at it’s unique design and you know it’s ready to roll off-road. This all wheel drive vehicle only has boundaries in regards to gas stations (Cell towers). Just by looking at it’s nameplate, you know it can travel the already established roads, as well as the off-road circuit.

The biggest obstacle you’ll notice for this new vehicle is the lack of support once you venture off the main road. Not much in the way of population yet, very few “stores” (sites) or people in general. But that is changing. Driving off-road in a vehicle designed for such use is becoming much more popular as people recognize the benefits of using such a vehicle.

Pretty much up to the early enthusiasts who enjoy this new-found freedom to blaze their own trail. Often starting as nothing, a dirt path starts to form. These paths often lead to gravel, then pavement. They have to build their own “stores” in more remote areas, as well as map out the locations for future adventurist’s to follow. Although they do have the advantage of using the already build roads / highways, that’s not their bread and butter. This specialty vehicle will work very well on these roads, but it excels where the “standard” vehicle can’t. Off-road. As the public becomes aware of these off-road paths, they’ll start to utilize them. The downside at this stage is, they’re toll roads (carrier fee’s). You have to pay for this new found freedom. The more people who use these paths, the cheaper the toll will get. At first, they won’t get much. Still a lot of “bad lands” of barren property to go through. But development is going full throttle. New stores are sprouting up and maps are starting to be plotted.

All awhile, the people rolling down the interstates in their Cadillac’s and Mercedes laugh at and scoff the off-roaders, wondering aloud why these people feel a “need” for alternate routes when there are perfectly good routes already established from point A to point B? Just stay on the road and you’ll be fine. Little do they recognize how many actually enjoy driving off-road. The freedom it brings is becoming more popular. Once they get off-road and leave the road restrictions behind, they often have a whole new sense of adventure. Now, things they only had access to while on the road are available off-road as well. Some old timers will retro-fit their vehicles to come along. But these vehicles won’t be easy to identify. They might make it or they might not. It’s driver beware.

Just looking at a .mobi, you’ll know it will work, no questions asked. Yes, it’s still a vehicle, but one designed for a specific purpose.

The entire concept was and still is pretty simple, really. Yet few can see any benefit. DotMobi will continue to be a failure in domainers eyes for quite awhile yet. It simply doesn’t fit the typical domainer model. End users still continue to adopt though, despite what domainers think. Paths are being built. These paths are getting more traffic every month. These paths will soon turn into roads of varying degrees of popularity. In time, there will be few, if any boundaries.

Bottom line is, .mobi has a use. At this still early stage, this use is not favorable to domainers. I can understand the distaste that mobi gives to a typical domainer. Parking is negligible and for the time being, reseller prices are way down as well. Can this change? Sure it can. When might this change happen? Who knows? Might be next month, next year or 5 years down the road. Public awareness is still miniscule. Time and adoption will change this as well. Like everything else, it’s supply and demand. Until the tides turn, I’ll continue to build my stores off-road for the future adventurers who come to visit.

Owning a portfolio of .mobi names means you have two options. Register, park and cross your fingers... renew, park, cross your fingers....rinse and repeat....OR - start developing and adding to the underdeveloped mobile web while enjoying increased traffic and monitization possabilities. I can attest to the fact that both work as described. My "parked" names don't come close to paying for themselves. My developed names certainly cover their own with change to spare.

(sorry for the long winded post. I was on a roll)

Very nice analogy! I couldn't agree more. Rep+

 

[snoop]

Well, part of the question was if .MOBI is dead on NP and yes it is. It's getting a bit scary now if the
.MOBI community has withdrawn themselves in the holy .MOBI church. and we all know where that is.
You can still join the .MOBI community but please do not talk about things outside the church, where the bad guys are. I think there is a word for that kind of communities but I won't say it here.
Don't y'alll see that you are not helping dot .MOBI by not posting here. You all ought to promote .MOBI
wherever you can, despite some people overhere who are bashing the TLD. You all are making a big
mistake by not posting here anymore.

It is dead everywhere, when things go down that is when people head for the caves and erect the barricades at the entrance. I'm surprised there isn't some crazy .biz forum somewhere where no bad words are spoken.

Something similar happened with .us a few years ago and from what I have heard .tv also fairly recently. I'm still waiting for the day when someone comes up with a .com version of it, that is the day we are all stuffed! lol

 

[mwzd]

mobi may very well be on life support with domainers, so I understand the question....this is a domainer forum, after all. Can't say the word dead...

Of course we don't say the word dead, its not polite. We say "taken off life support" :lol:

The recent re-buyout of LLL mobis was not done by endusers.

Nope, it was done by vested interests within the domaining community. Do a scan of how many people actually own the bulk of the 17,576 lll.mobi out there.

The truth is, you can't compare mobi to any other TLD, simply because there are no other TLD's like it.

The truth is, this is just a marketing stance, one not even known by its target audience who are busy living their lives with phones that emulate normal pc browsers. mtld should have gone after end users on behalf of the domainers who invested in it, instead it went after even more domainers to fill their own bank account, ignoring the fact that a domain ecosystem w/o end users is doomed to failure.

The truth also is that this was the main 'idea' behind the tld and it was supposed to be the 'default' extensions for mobile phones, all the mobile phone manufacturers were supposed to add .mobi after every term someone entered in their cellphones. That didn't happen either since mtld dropped the development requirements it had so clearly mandated.

The truth is that mtld instead of supporting the hand the fed it, the domaining community, setup crappy 'premium' auctions, removed the development mandate and now has released another money making racket with their new two letter rfp con ensuring that mtld itself made money from domain resale rather than the domaining community.

This same community that creates the backbone of support for .mobi are supposed to magically turn into developers for a dying a technology that most people don't even use anymore and going forward will totally ignore imho. Who wants a crappy wap page instead of a full featured movie running on their phone?

I've been developing for the web since 1998, never have i seen so many people developing and promoting obsolete technology that is being retired all over the world. With 3g / wiimax / etc etc coming and 2gbps speeds available on your cellphone, do you think 'an easy to use, fast downloading page' has any relevance anymore?

.com, .net, .org, .info, .co.uk, .de, .gov,.in, .co.in, .cn, .cc, or any of the other CC's or TLD's all have one huge thing in common. They're all designed to be viewed on a PC screen.

With .mobi's raison d'etre 'to provide a better mobile surfing experience' being trounced by technology and higher bandwidth speeds of mobile technology, .mobi finds itself at the bottom of the same pile of tlds and cctlds who you claim are 'limited' to pc screens.

Dream on my eloquent friend, however, remember the old adage - "a fool and his money are soon parted".

 

[Electric-Shadow]

Personally I dont see the point in .mobi , what can you do with .mobi that you cant do with .com .net or any other extension? granted it has it's obvious appeal to mobile website owners and if you owned a site which has both a full HTML version and a wap version some people may automatically go to the .mobi version of the domain but then again they may be just as inclined to go to m.site.com

In the end it all boils down to the prefference of the domain owner, do they want to spend more money registering a .mobi or do they want to save money and just shove the mobile version of their site on their .com - personally i'd go with the later

Hope that all made sense

 

[-REECE-]

Well said! :tu:

If Nokia had been the one managing the extension and had they begun in 2000 when they first had the idea, I think .mobi would have had a very different outcome...

Who in their right mind would reserve all the very best keywords and sell them off a handful at a time to domainers if they genuinely cared about the fate of the extension? They put The Weather Channel through hell to get weather.mobi despite them being very obviously the best possible end user for that domain.

As Jeff said many times, Mtld was just trying to line their pockets, the extension came out later than it should have, and the whole premium/RFP thing really sealed the deal.

Of course we don't say the word dead, its not polite. We say "taken off life support" :lol:


Nope, it was done by vested interests within the domaining community. Do a scan of how many people actually own the bulk of the 17,576 lll.mobi out there.


The truth is, this is just a marketing stance, one not even known by its target audience who are busy living their lives with phones that emulate normal pc browsers. mtld should have gone after end users on behalf of the domainers who invested in it, instead it went after even more domainers to fill their own bank account, ignoring the fact that a domain ecosystem w/o end users is doomed to failure.

The truth also is that this was the main 'idea' behind the tld and it was supposed to be the 'default' extensions for mobile phones, all the mobile phone manufacturers were supposed to add .mobi after every term someone entered in their cellphones. That didn't happen either since mtld dropped the development requirements it had so clearly mandated.

The truth is that mtld instead of supporting the hand the fed it, the domaining community, setup crappy 'premium' auctions, removed the development mandate and now has released another money making racket with their new two letter rfp con ensuring that mtld itself made money from domain resale rather than the domaining community.

This same community that creates the backbone of support for .mobi are supposed to magically turn into developers for a dying a technology that most people don't even use anymore and going forward will totally ignore imho. Who wants a crappy wap page instead of a full featured movie running on their phone?

I've been developing for the web since 1998, never have i seen so many people developing and promoting obsolete technology that is being retired all over the world. With 3g / wiimax / etc etc coming and 2gbps speeds available on your cellphone, do you think 'an easy to use, fast downloading page' has any relevance anymore?



With .mobi's raison d'etre 'to provide a better mobile surfing experience' being trounced by technology and higher bandwidth speeds of mobile technology, .mobi finds itself at the bottom of the same pile of tlds and cctlds who you claim are 'limited' to pc screens.

Dream on my eloquent friend, however, remember the old adage - "a fool and his money are soon parted".

 

[Kate]

As of today sex.mobi is still unassigned, inactive, dead.
I wonder how many other premium domains are held back by mtld ?
Sometimes I am under the impression .mobi suffers from the .tv syndrome ie. premium keywords being priced unaffordably so it somewhat kills interest in the extension :imho:

The good news is that .mobi is now growing again, albeit at a modest place. But even .biz is growing, and while it may not be dead its raison d'être has always been questioned.
So much for the mobile Internet revolution.

 

[mjnels]

As of today sex.mobi is still unassigned, inactive, dead.
I wonder how many other premium domains are held back by mtld ?

as a domainer i say: good. :hehe:

the domainer side of me is glad mTLD held back so many of those top names and are barely even 1/10 of the way through selling them, assigning them, keeping them, or whatever they end up doing. this basically has the effect of one domainer owning an extremely large portion of the best keywords and only leaking them out slowly. supply and demand... and dont fool yourself because so far many of the 100's of "premium domains" that were sold and had development requirements included either dont have actual websites on them still or have some minimal "best efforts" site on them that isnt very useful just to pass compliance... you aint gonna make someone develop something useful if they dont want to.. even the big 3 TLD's suffer from this today in 2009.

 

[Kate]

It's not just about supply and demand. If you don't supply when there may be demand, customers will shop elsewhere or move on. At some point it's too late to release the goods. Or if you do, the market conditions may be less favorable as time goes by. Hold and wait is not always a winning strategy.

 

[scandiman]

It's not just about supply and demand. If you don't supply when there may be demand, customers will shop elsewhere or move on. At some point it's too late to release the goods. Or if you do, the market conditions may be less favorable as time goes by. Hold and wait is not always a winning strategy.

As mj is alluding to... supply them to who? Releasing the Premiums en masse would simply result in most if not all of those names changing hands from mTLD to domain speculators. Sex.mobi not resolving vs having a Sedo parking page would do absolutely nothing to advance the extension. mTLD carefully releasing many of the remaining Premiums to parties willing and able to build and promote them will do so much more for the extension than some domainer Premium name feeding frenzy.

 

[-REECE-]

Frankly, the best strategy would have been to not bother with all the selling to domainers and rather, to focus on selling the telecoms on the idea.

Even the biggest .mobi naysayer is probably willing to admit the extension would have had a fighting chance had a .mobi button appeared on phones (and I'm not talking 1 model here).