.mobi MOBI vs COM

[noonoo1]

Hi guys is it possible to start a debate about the mighty .com vs .mobi ?

I believe that .mobi will become far stronger than the .com in the next few years.

One of my main reasons for believing this is as follows;

1. The ratio of mobile phones to pc's.

2. The restrictions of employers allowing their staff the use of pc's. Time is money!

3. The screen size restrictions of mobile phone's.

4. The lack of time available in a day to access home pc's. Kids are always on the pc.

5. The mobile phone technology is getting better exponentially.

6. I am sure the carbon footprint of a mobile is less than a pc.

7. There is only one domain extension designed for the mobile, but many extension's for pc's. I would say watering down the value of domains with multiple extension's. This maybe why some people are so negative about .mobi's.

please feel free to add more to this debate.

 

[circa1850]

Actually, the phones have computer chips in them with "electronic cash" deposited in them. Nothing to do with the web at all. Sorta like ezpass here for the p.a turnpike, plus you can talk on it :talk:

How the chinese and japan are browseing the web via their cell phones I have no idea.

I am aware of the chips for cash. That has been widely popular for about 2 years in Japan.

Mobi is becoming very popular in both China and Japan as a means for navigating the web via cell phone. In India, it is THE craze among the young from reports I have read. India is the second most populated nation in the world, behind China.

One needs to monitor the global market place and trends. Too many times on these forums I read members say they could care less what goes on in Asia.

Then again, I am breaking my own self-imposed rule. I am reading the same arguments that I read in the spring of 2006 as to why mobi will fail and why it will not succeed and it is not even needed and is a money making scam for the registars.

And I am replying to those same points more than a year later now as a member.

Back to my "ducks" and "sieve" analogy.

 

[-REECE-]

I have 1 name which will have paid for itself in 1 month's earnings... As long as there are names like that around making 10x+ reg fees on the year, how can .mobis go anywhere but up in value? Even with the minute traffic currently at our disposal, many of my names and the names of other people I've spoken to are poised to make > reg fee on the year.

 

[scandiman]

Then again, I am breaking my own self-imposed rule. I am reading the same arguments that I read in the spring of 2006 as to why mobi will fail and why it will not succeed and it is not even needed and is a money making scam for the registars.

And I am replying to those same points more than a year later now as a member.

Ultimately the old arguments will continue to be voiced. It is the nature of things. I'm thankful for the new subforum rules that can help maintain civility and focus on the occasions the old arguments are brought out and measured against the current progress of .mobi today and in the future.

I have 1 name which will have paid for itself in 1 month's earnings... As long as there are names like that around making 10x+ reg fees on the year, how can .mobis go anywhere but up in value? Even with the minute traffic currently at our disposal, many of my names and the names of other people I've spoken to are poised to make > reg fee on the year.

Yes indeed, hard to argue against real earnings.

 

[movingconcierge]

First before I respond, let me just say that people who really invested time and money into .mobi's and this forum went through some emotions to put together new mobi forum rules so we could have these heated discussions.

Let's not dilute them with the same old arguments like this one. Let's try to keep one thread that we can continously beat to death rather than new members opening up new threads with the same topic everyday.

1. The ratio of mobile phones to pc's.
You'd probably want a more narrowed comparison like the number of home broadband accounts versus the number of mobile web accounts. That would be a better comparison. Simply the number of devices doesn't tell you anything as it doesn't define what those owners are doing with the device.

2. The restrictions of employers allowing their staff the use of pc's. Time is money!
I think this is a very thin argument. I believe you are talking about employers having a proxy QA rep sitting and smacking the knuckles of employees surfing during workhours, correct? If so, you are then inferring that those employees will then spend their free time in the break room, etc surfing on their phones, correct again? If so (again), I think that is a weak argument for your case.

3. The screen size restrictions of mobile phone's.
True.

4. The lack of time available in a day to access home pc's. Kids are always on the pc.
I'm a parent. My wife is a parent. If I want to use the PC when I get home, I'll either kick my kid off the PC, or I'll buy another one - they are only $300 now. I will not sit at home and use my phone to surf.

5. The mobile phone technology is getting better exponentially.
The only way that this betters mobi is buy mainstreaming the mobile internet. Faster mobile internet with greater memory and processing speed will challenge mobi unless they properly brand themselves as the go to extension for mobile content.

Conversely, I have a T-Mobile MDA - it runs windows mobile, it has a good size hard drive, memory and processor speed. Sitting two feet away from my WiFi - namepros loads in minutes. There is a need for mobile content, but your argument doesn't properly address it.

6. I am sure the carbon footprint of a mobile is less than a pc.
If size matters then you are correct. However, the process of creating a smaller something may actually take more resources or have more waste product. Further, phones, I'm guessing here, may have a much shorter life expectancy due to the amount of handling and damage. You don't drop your PC once a week do you? So, even though phones may be smaller, they may actually be equal to or more poluting than PC's.

7. There is only one domain extension designed for the mobile, but many extension's for pc's. I would say watering down the value of domains with multiple extension's. This maybe why some people are so negative about .mobi's.
I'm not even addressing this - except for that

 

[ezinaz]

What is this MOBI that you speak of?

 

[erwin.groen]

The title of the thread should be re-named to:
.com AND .mobi
You can't compare Apples to Oranges! they are two very different things!

 

[oldtimer]

If we are discussing niches now, names like taxi.mobi I think have a shot at dominating their industry for public use, assuming .mobi becomes the household word we all hope it does. But I firmly believe this will take longer than the next few years. 3-5 years is a much more reasonable yet still aggressive time-line.

Arguments are okay if something good comes out of it, I just regged “ 247taxi.mobi “ I was surprised that it was still available, 247cab had been registered awhile back, but not 247taxi .

 

[noonoo1]

So what points have been raised so far;

All other domain extesions will have the software capability to fit mobile screens.
Web search and access on the mobile will be relative to situation/location of user.
New and exciting ways of using the mobile phone is here already.

If i have missed points feel free to add your points.

I would still rather use .mobi on my MOBIle than any other extension.

To Jo Bloggs .mobi is meant for MOBIle phone.
Thats is how i see the general public will view it. IMHO

 

[circa1850]

What is this MOBI that you speak of?

 

[binaryman]

 

[movingconcierge]

...nice one

 

[DBADT2007]

re: MOBI vs COM

Hi Everyone,
A very good and debatable subject. Hmm, now lets keep it civil.

INHO: I think that dot mobi will command high value, however I am hesitant to state that it will surpass dot com, not because it is impossible for dot mobi to beat dot com, but because its all dictated by the market. I happen to think that dot mobi is a worthy challenger to dot com and don't let its size fool you, it may be smaller and younger than dot com, but it has quite a few hidden aces, .

I will remind the dot com supporters that although dot com is king at the moment, there will come a point that your sales will start to slow down, just because of market conditions. How high will a buyer be willing to pay for the domain before they consider it out of their price range or too much money to be risked in a domain- that is the billion dollar question. When this sentiment is reached then the other extensions will pick up in value and may in fact cause the dot com market to drop in value. Just like the real estate industry had a recent price correction, so to could dot com domains. So, lets say investors felt that their needs were best met by dot mobi, then the value would rise while the dot com price would dip, thus appearing that the dot mobi beat the dot com, but in fact what just took place was a price correction.

I will agree with the dot com supporters in that as mobile technology progresses they will be able to run code just as complex as the ones that pcs run, and therefore mobiles could just as well visit dot com domains. However, this is a double edge sword. If these changes in technology were to happen, the restrictions on dot mobi may be removed and that would mean that dot mobi would become just as competitive to dot com as any other extension for that matter- since websites could become just as complex as any other tld- only difference would be the dot mobi extension.

Now here is the kicker. Lets say for the sake of argument that taxi.com were to become for sale and that the individual that owned it had an asking price of 1billion USD since after all it would include the buyout of corporation xyz, and all other extensions where reasonably close to the same value or even owned by the same company. And then here comes dot mobi, which happens to be owned by one individual that is willing to sell for 100million USD, do you honestly believe that the buyer would pay the 1billion USD for dot com vs 100millions USD for the dot mobi??? Again, it depends on the market, the opinion they have on the extension, and what other benefits were included. I don't know about you guys, but taxi.com/taxi.net and taxi.mobi all sound good to me, as country neutrals. taxi.org/taxi.name, kind of would sound awkward, it may or may not be. Other tld and cctlds may not sound as good or may in fact trigger country specifics to mind. For instance, local markets: taxi.us (us market), taxi.co.uk (uk market), etc.

So, now I'll answer the OPs questions...
1. The ratio of mobile phones to pc's.
* lot more phones to pcs. While its true that there aren't many specific details on percentages of enabled internet phones, I'm willing to bet this number will grow, and has a potential to outnumber the pcs on internet.
2. The restrictions of employers allowing their staff the use of pc's. Time is money!
* true, and the phone generation feels much more comfortable with their phone than a pc, cause pcs seem so outdated to us. Additionally, not many parental blocks on phones, unlike pcs.
3. The screen size restrictions of mobile phone's.
* screen size on phones is actually a drawback, but newer phones are being designed to have a larger screen space, which is good for portable units.
4. The lack of time available in a day to access home pc's. Kids are always on the pc.
* i think a good percentage of people have multiple pcs, but like I previously stated the phone generation feels much more comfortable with their phones.
5. The mobile phone technology is getting better exponentially.
* very true. this isn't really good or bad, its just is.
6. I am sure the carbon footprint of a mobile is less than a pc.
* true, load times are faster. but code can always be optimized.
7. There is only one domain extension designed for the mobile, but many extension's for pc's. I would say watering down the value of domains with multiple extension's. This maybe why some people are so negative about .mobi's.
* true, however that said the dot com supporters have a valid point in stating that code can be optimized in mobile detection to create adaptable websites. However, equally true for the dot mobi, it can be designed to be optimized for mobile and code detection to change accordingly, if a pc is detected as the accessing system.

So, in conclusion what am I saying? I am definitely looking forward to the upcoming iPhone. lol. I know that's not part of this debate, just thought I throw a monkey wrench in there, its been a long debate.

 

[MCDomains]

99% (maybe 99.9) of the population probably hasn't even heard of .mobi ...

.mobi has a long way to go.

 

[Keith]

99% (maybe 99.9) of the population probably hasn't even heard of .mobi ...

.mobi has a long way to go.

I agree. However, yesterday Fox News did a story on banking and making payments via mobile phones. They did not mention .mobi but did mention Bank of America as offering this service already. BOA does have a mobi site running right now so this looks very good to me. The story covered how several countries have been paying via mobile for years and that it will become widespread quickly. This is the kind of thing that could make mobi known to the masses literally overnight! Fox News went on to say how safe this system is and specifics it could be used for (movies, groceries, etc).

Mobi knock off .com, not so fast, but this extension will be known by the majority very soon :imho: .

keithmt

 

[MCDomains]

Speaking of Fox News... foxnews.mobi -- one of the first to make the jump.

 

[Keith]

Speaking of Fox News... foxnews.mobi -- one of the first to make the jump.

Believe me, I was on the edge of my seat waiting for any mention of mobi. The story still got me reved up just over the content and companies involved. I'll be looking for more news like this as the days progress .

keithmt

 

[oldtimer]

Now here is the kicker. Lets say for the sake of argument that taxi.com were to become for sale and that the individual that owned it had an asking price of 1billion USD ......

And then here comes dot mobi, which happens to be owned by one individual that is willing to sell for 100million USD, do you honestly believe that the buyer would pay the 1billion USD for dot com vs 100millions USD for the dot mobi??? ......

I am willing to consider only one percent of that for my newly registered 247taxi.mobi

I believe that eventually .mobi will find its place and it does not have to knock any other extension off in order to be successful, .mobi can establish itself as the extension for sites that are mobile friendly and accessible by phones and mobile devices that have certain limitations at the present time, but as new technologies arrive and more capable phones and devices are made .mobi will adjust accordingly and at some point in the future when phones and all those other mobile devices are combined in to one capable device then .mobi will abandon all its restrictions and will become just a normal extension, but by then it has already established itself as a gateway for all things mobile, the same way that .org has been able to establish itself for sites associated with most organizations. IMO

 

[nrmillions]

99% (maybe 99.9) of the population probably hasn't even heard of .mobi ...

.mobi has a long way to go.

thats irrelevant if you have a properly developed site. Just like last.fm selling for over $200 million. 99.9% of the world has never heard of .fm either. If you develop and build traffic thats all that matters. the actual name and the extension wont matter. when .com was only 8 months old, 99% of the world had never heard of it either. As more of the population finds out about .mobi then the value of non developed .mobi names will have to go up, but we dont need people to find out about .mobi for our developed names to be successful.

 

[scandiman]

If we are discussing niches now, names like taxi.mobi I think have a shot at dominating their industry for public use, assuming .mobi becomes the household word we all hope it does. But I firmly believe this will take longer than the next few years. 3-5 years is a much more reasonable yet still aggressive time-line.

Arguments are okay if something good comes out of it, I just regged “ 247taxi.mobi “ I was surprised that it was still available, 247cab had been registered awhile back, but not 247taxi .

And no rep added? Sheesh. Good luck with your new reg.

 

[Amnezia]

dot mobi will never be stronger than dot com. Too many reasons to list.