.mobi Reply from .MOBI to me addressing my concerns.

[binaryman]

From:
Vance P. Hedderel
Director, PR and Communications
dotMobi (mTLD Mobile Top Level Domain Ltd.)
[email protected]
_________________

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2006 10:28 AM
To: Vance Hedderel
Subject: One question Vance

Hallo Vance,
I have invested in around 50 .mobi domains but one thing strikes me as
very odd. That is that I went into the big Vodaphone store here in
Amsterdam today and asked the sales-staff about .Mobi (Vodaphone of
course as you know is one of the official backers) Not one of the staff
had ever even heard of .Mobi and could tell me nothing about it. They
were able to tell me about Wapping and mobile phones with Windows IE5.
But .Mobi..no..that drew a blank.
So my question is ...How can this be? Also if you visit any of the
backers of .Mobi's websites nothing is mentioned about .Mobi at all.
Weird.. like on the Samsung website they have details of the latest
mobile phones with which you can have internet connection but it does
not mention .Mobi.
All a bit disturbing. Or do you guys not really believe in your own
creation anymore?
We domainers want it to be a success and are spending money on buying
domains and developing. I hope it is not going to be in vain.
Regards
Fred
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hallo Fred,
All multinational companies have MANY moving parts -- and not all of
them move at the same time.

I assure you that all of our investors have a strong commitment to the
.mobi concept and all bring a lot of energy to the table in regards to
global adoption of the .mobi domain.

You are looking at the start of an evolution that will be a year or two
in the making and will arrive in full at different places at different
times.

As we noted in a recent press release, it took ten years for the general
public to register 100,000 PC-based domain names in the early days of
the Internet. We have sold more than 250,000 names in six months.

And I'm hoping the attached shot of a display in a "3" store and a Nokia
phone will give you some level of comfort that our investors are
beginning to integrate .mobi into their marketing.

I almost forgot to ask you this concerning the following quote made by
you Vance
"And while I understand what people mean when they say ".mobi" seems
strenuous to type, I believe that's soon to be a non-issue as more and
more phone manufacturers default their handset web browsers to .mobi
domains. "

Is that true? Why have we not heard or seen anything about that from the
manufacturers of handsets yet. Will .mobi be the automatic default or is
that just speculating?

This is currently a discussion point between dotMobi, operators and
handset manufacturers. I can't elaborate at this time.

 

[Jo]

Good news, thanks for emailing him and thanks for sharing Fred. I guess we are all living in the days of instant gratification and expect much. It looks like we will all have to be patient and hope that what Vance states is true and they are preparing the market.

 

[Traveler]

Good news, thanks for emailing him and thanks for sharing Fred. I guess we are all living in the days of instant gratification and expect much. It looks like we will all have to be patient and hope that what Vance states is true and they are preparing the market.

With this extension, you would be shooting yourself in the foot if you don't have patience. The truly premium names have not even been sold yet. The good times are to come.

 

[dochlaggie]

Wish he could elaborate just now. If mobi becomes the default wow!!

 

[MrRhee]

(IMHO)


Why? Why would any domainers expect .mobi partners to be heavily promoting .mobi websites to mass market consumers right now when there's virtually nothing developed yet? Seems ridiculous for domainers to expect to see signs advertising "VISIT .MOBI", etc...

for example...

if I saw signs posted everywhere in my city for "VISIT 'CITY' MALL" and saw ads on TV and in the newspaper saying "GO TO CITY MALL", I as a consumer might go check it out... but what if I drove out of my way and all I found was a giant undeveloped piece of property that had a big sign that read "COMING IN 2008"... I'd be confused, disappointed, a bit angry for the time wasted, perhaps not want to return, and all those advertising/promo dollars would have gone to waste.

IMHO, same thing with . MOBI... the rollout will take time... much time... which is great because it gives us time to develop our own .MOBI sites. I don't expect any of .MOBIs partners to be promoting .MOBI to the general public or even to their own low-level employees at this point in time. It would be a waste of time to educate consumers about .mobi now when there's barely any .mobi sites for them. Patience people... patience. this is your time to build... I, for one, know I need over a year to build all the sites I want in my .mobi network... I'm banking on the fact that MTLD will be releasing Premiums slowly over time, building awareness, and giving me more time to prepare my network.


.

 

[Silhouette]

....I believe that's soon to be a non-issue as more and
more phone manufacturers default their handset web browsers to .mobi
domains. "

This is a very critical part. are you sure??
If that is true, i think we all can add 2 "0" to all price tags :D (dreaming)

 

[cityforums.com]

Wish he could elaborate just now. If mobi becomes the default wow!!

Sounds like a lot of BS ... here's a contradiction for you, it took only 6

months to sell 250 000 names and none of the manufacturers are even taking

about .mobi.

 

[whitebark]

Good news, thanks for emailing him and thanks for sharing Fred. I guess we are all living in the days of instant gratification and expect much. It looks like we will all have to be patient and hope that what Vance states is true and they are preparing the market.

Yes, but what many .mobi investors are hinging much of their investment on, is that the shareholders that control these multinational companies don't expect instant gratification. And that of course flies in the face of established business practice. If they start pouring money into .mobi and see no instant return most if not all will discontinue their involvement post haste.

For the sake of everyone who invested heavily I hope that doesn't happen but it seems so many have completely disregarded the obvious and have hinged much of their business plan on the actions of other companies - a VERY bad business move that any first year business teacher would tell you is certain to sink more companies than it floats.

As for them defaulting mobile devices to .mobi - not going to happen when 99% of mobile content is being served from existing .tlds.

 

[cityforums.com]

Yes, but what many .mobi investors are hinging much of their investment on, is that the shareholders that control these multinational companies don't expect instant gratification. And that of course flies in the face of established business practice. If they start pouring money into .mobi and see no instant return most if not all will discontinue their involvement post haste.

For the sake of everyone who invested heavily I hope that doesn't happen but it seems so many have completely disregarded the obvious and have hinged much of their business plan on the actions of other companies - a VERY bad business move that any first year business teacher would tell you is certain to sink more companies than it floats.

As for them defaulting mobile devices to .mobi - not going to happen when 99% of mobile content is being served from existing .tlds.

I agree 100%. You expressed the reality of .mobi very well.

 

[Traveler]

I think you have hit the nail on the head. This is a sloooow methodical rollout. The best names have been reserved as premium and will be given to those with a solid development plan. That process is going to take over a year. The .mobi release has to be the best thought out of any tld to date. If you don't see the "big picture" you probably just don't get it.

(IMHO)


Why? Why would any domainers expect .mobi partners to be heavily promoting .mobi websites to mass market consumers right now when there's virtually nothing developed yet? Seems ridiculous for domainers to expect to see signs advertising "VISIT .MOBI", etc...

for example...

if I saw signs posted everywhere in my city for "VISIT 'CITY' MALL" and saw ads on TV and in the newspaper saying "GO TO CITY MALL", I as a consumer might go check it out... but what if I drove out of my way and all I found was a giant undeveloped piece of property that had a big sign that read "COMING IN 2008"... I'd be confused, disappointed, a bit angry for the time wasted, perhaps not want to return, and all those advertising/promo dollars would have gone to waste.

IMHO, same thing with . MOBI... the rollout will take time... much time... which is great because it gives us time to develop our own .MOBI sites. I don't expect any of .MOBIs partners to be promoting .MOBI to the general public or even to their own low-level employees at this point in time. It would be a waste of time to educate consumers about .mobi now when there's barely any .mobi sites for them. Patience people... patience. this is your time to build... I, for one, know I need over a year to build all the sites I want in my .mobi network... I'm banking on the fact that MTLD will be releasing Premiums slowly over time, building awareness, and giving me more time to prepare my network.


.

 

[cityforums.com]

What is there to get about all the extensions being accessible by

mobile ? You think the mobile device makers are going to BLOCK

the other extensions ? Obviously not, then this means that .mobi

will NOT have an exclusivity.

The .mobi sales folks are telling you .mobi will have an exclusive

when ALL THE MAJOR MANUFACTUERS of MOBILE devices say NOTHING

about this on their websites ... go check out Nokia.com, Palm.com

RIM.com etc and smell the coffee. This does not mean you can't make

a killing with .mobi though.

 

[mobidick]

Thanks Fred...

IMHO, same thing with . MOBI... the rollout will take time... much time... which is great because it gives us time to develop our own .MOBI sites. I don't expect any of .MOBIs partners to be promoting .MOBI to the general public or even to their own low-level employees at this point in time. It would be a waste of time to educate consumers about .mobi now when there's barely any .mobi sites for them. Patience people... patience. this is your time to build... I, for one, know I need over a year to build all the sites I want in my .mobi network... I'm banking on the fact that MTLD will be releasing Premiums slowly over time, building awareness, and giving me more time to prepare.

:bingo:

Interesting Nokia UK screen shot... while it would be great if all mobile browsers default to .mobi, I suspect that the future of mobile browser defaults will be closely tied to search results provided thru partnerships with the big search engines... Google, MSN and Yahoo. Therefore, the real question will be how much weight the .mobi extension is given by their mobile search results.

Any mention of .mobi on the phones, whether it be a button, or a category, like shown in the Nokia screenshot, will give a big boost to the extension in the eyes of the public... which can only help .mobi's rankings in the search engines.

 

[MrRhee]

The .mobi sales folks are telling you .mobi will have an exclusive

when ALL THE MAJOR MANUFACTUERS of MOBILE devices say NOTHING

about this on their websites ... go check out Nokia.com, Palm.com

RIM.com etc and smell the coffee.

What are you talking about? Have they actually said any of that? Maybe I missed it... please provide a link.

I haven't read them saying they plan any TLD "exclusivity" with carriers or device makers... the only thing I recall them saying is that they have the ability to enforce .mobi domain owners to build sites that are compliant to the .mobi standards... ensuring that the mobile surfer can have a better more trusted experience. As a consumer, it matters very little if I can access all TLDs if I can't use the site because the owner didn't build a mobile version... so I will seek out .mobi sites that cater to my needs. Have you ever visited a .com, .net, .whatever on your mobile phone and tried to access the content if the site wasn't built for mobile devices/os? I believe .MOBI has potential, greater than some imagine... all the detractors can feel free to keep detracting... leaves more opportunities out there for those who wish to tap into it. I have a healthy domain/website portfolio outside of .mobi and I'm developing .mobi versions for many of my .com sites so that my userbase will be able to get the content/services they need and I will be promoting .mobi to them as a SOLUTION to their mobile surfing needs.

But if you've heard/seen that MTLD has hinted at EXCLUSIVE TLD contracts, please provide the LINK or more info. Thanks.

As always, time will tell. Good luck to all the players & spectators.

 

[domaindigger]

Here's what's going to happen IMHO:

Step 1) .mobi's begin to be developed

Step 2) Mobile internet begins to take off as prices are lowered allowing for new revenue streams.

Step 3) People start visiting .com's but most don't display properly.

Step 4) People find out about .mobi's and start visting .mobi sites and they ALL, 100%, no questions asked, display properly.

Step 5) People stop bothering with .com's on mobile phones and default to .mobi

Step 6) .mobi takes off, payday arrives.

However...this all hinges on step 1. If we all sit on our .mobi's waiting for an easy payday, we're never going to get anywhere near Step 6.

Moral of the story: Start Developing your .mobi's!

 

[mjnels]

gotta hand it to the dot-mobi registry for one thing tho.... i also emailed them yesterday and within 20 minutes got a response.. my question was "when do you plan to lift the mandatory 2-year registration and lower it to 1 year.."

their answers was: no current plans to do so..

not the answer i wanted, but its nice how they respond to a nobody like me... and even nicer they responded in length to the OP above..

 

[DomainBuyerBroker]

I have met the .mobi people at TRAFFIC and all are very qualified people. They were not just some low-level, new-to-the-business PR marketing flunkies.

This extension has some real beef behind it and it will evolve. It may settle into a niche age group or sub culture or country or it may grow to be the ".com" of the mobile internet.

Have patience. It will take a while to build and then longer for end user habits to take hold.

This .mobi evolution is similar to buying .com domains in 1994 and saying "C'mon, when is this Internet thing going to take off?"

.com took YEARS to really develop and now we're into Web 2.0.

Give .mobi a chance to wake up. The landrush was less than TWO MONTHS ago.

 

[namewaiter]

(IMHO)
for example...

if I saw signs posted everywhere in my city for "VISIT 'CITY' MALL" and saw ads on TV and in the newspaper saying "GO TO CITY MALL", I as a consumer might go check it out... but what if I drove out of my way and all I found was a giant undeveloped piece of property that had a big sign that read "COMING IN 2008"... I'd be confused, disappointed, a bit angry for the time wasted, perhaps not want to return, and all those advertising/promo dollars would have gone to waste.

IMHO, same thing with . MOBI... the rollout will take time... much time... which is great because it gives us time to develop our own .MOBI sites. I don't expect any of .MOBIs partners to be promoting .MOBI to the general public or even to their own low-level employees at this point in time.

i totally agree ... this is just way too premature ... give it time, i'm actually surprised he even answered your request.

 

[Jo]

FYI: I'm a visionary person, when I said "we" I meant the .mobi domainers in general, not me, personally. I realize it will take time.

 

[cityforums.com]

Here's what's going to happen IMHO:

Step 1) .mobi's begin to be developed

Step 2) Mobile internet begins to take off as prices are lowered allowing for new revenue streams.

Step 3) People start visiting .com's but most don't display properly.

Step 4) People find out about .mobi's and start visting .mobi sites and they ALL, 100%, no questions asked, display properly.

Step 5) People stop bothering with .com's on mobile phones and default to .mobi

Step 6) .mobi takes off, payday arrives.

However...this all hinges on step 1. If we all sit on our .mobi's waiting for an easy payday, we're never going to get anywhere near Step 6.

Moral of the story: Start Developing your .mobi's!

Step 3 is a false assumption. Look at google for example.

What are you talking about? Have they actually said any of that? Maybe I missed it... please provide a link.

I haven't read them saying they plan any TLD "exclusivity" with carriers or device makers... the only thing I recall them saying is that they have the ability to enforce .mobi domain owners to build sites that are compliant to the .mobi standards... ensuring that the mobile surfer can have a better more trusted experience. As a consumer, it matters very little if I can access all TLDs if I can't use the site because the owner didn't build a mobile version... so I will seek out .mobi sites that cater to my needs. Have you ever visited a .com, .net, .whatever on your mobile phone and tried to access the content if the site wasn't built for mobile devices/os? I believe .MOBI has potential, greater than some imagine... all the detractors can feel free to keep detracting... leaves more opportunities out there for those who wish to tap into it. I have a healthy domain/website portfolio outside of .mobi and I'm developing .mobi versions for many of my .com sites so that my userbase will be able to get the content/services they need and I will be promoting .mobi to them as a SOLUTION to their mobile surfing needs.

But if you've heard/seen that MTLD has hinted at EXCLUSIVE TLD contracts, please provide the LINK or more info. Thanks.

As always, time will tell. Good luck to all the players & spectators.

I should have said defaulting to .mobi, it is a form

of exclusivity though.

Here is a quote from above
----------------------------------------------------------------
Why have we not heard or seen anything about that from the manufacturers of handsets yet. Will .mobi be the automatic default or is that just speculating?

This is currently a discussion point between dotMobi, operators and handset manufacturers. I can't elaborate at this time.
----------------------------------------------------------------

 

[domaindigger]

Step 3 is a false assumption.

I disagree. Considering .mobi's are required to be mobile-friendly and .com's aren't, people will quickly learn to default to .mobi's and not waste time hunting for mobile-friendly .com's (remember, they're "on the go", time is precious). Again, as long as there are enough .mobi's developed...and just because one of the richest companies in the world, who also happens to back .mobi's, has a mobile-friendly .com doesn't mean most .com's will be mobile-friendly. Again, they're not required too, so most won't bother.