Seems there is a growing sense of unease amongst .mobi investors since the Traffic auction. Personally I take it as a bad sign when a CEO feels the need to come out and tell everyone his extension is "not doomed".

"I take issue with the statement that dotMobi is "popularly believed to be doomed" and believe prices people are paying for .mobi Premium Names reflect smart acquisitions by smart people."

...............

"So my point is this---.mobi is not doomed. It is thriving and supported by an incredibly talented worldwide team and a slew of big-time diverse investors with great resources. It is supported by the developer community. It is supported by many domainers who have a history of incredible success---and we thank the domainer community for that support.

.....................

Thus IMHO the prices people are paying today for names from our Premium Name inventory reflect that the market believes in the mobile Internet and is bullish on dotMobi's approach to improving the mobile browsing experience and eventual traffic that flows from such an improved experience."

http://www.dnforum.com/f408/question...ad-279723.html

This blog post is interesting also, (from the mTLD blog), I think they are right about the down market though I think .mobi was hit much harder than the overall market, which is justified given this is a spec extension.

"It was in the "wee small hours" this morning when news reached us of the results of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West auction in Las Vegas. Like many others, we were initially surprised. However, when we analysed the sales over our cups of coffee this morning, it became clear that within the context of the whole event, .mobi domains had in fact fared extremely well."

...................

"It's apparent that the market as a whole has gone a bit soft and jittery. The signs of sluggishness have been there for quite some time: the world is facing potential financial crisis and that is affecting all markets, not just the domain market. The subprime lending issues in the USA triggered a nervousness in the world's stock markets late last year and, clearly, investors react to marketplace conditions. Domains are subject to economic cycles, and for that reason, some of yesterday's prices were somewhat depressed (unlike the lucky winning bidders!)."

http://dotmobi.typepad.com/dotmobi/2...ic-west--.html

Nice to mention about the stock market when in reality, dot mobi is being hit by iPhone more than anything else.

Originally posted by touchring
Nice to mention about the stock market when in reality, dot mobi is being hit by iPhone more than anything else.

this is a dead argument.

an iphone commercial features a dotmobi website on it... im not saying tons of people noticed it was a dotmobi domain.. the point is a .mobi domain is just one way of having a mobile website... the iphone did not kill the concept of mobile websites... the only people that say this are clueless.

I think most non-domainers simply take away from the ad that the iphone can render "normal" sites.

That just raises expectations from people to be able to access "normal" sites on their next-gen phones which is why all the phone manufacturers are falling over themselves to deliver that "browse anything" functionality.

Specific mobile sites are all well and good, but their importance as a means of accessing data in a mobile context diminishes with every new handset than can access the info via normal sites.

That is why there has been a subtle shift over time in terms of how .mobi is being pitched because the original "crappy sites on crappy phones" pitch didn't set the world alight.

accessing normal sites is a necessity in my view.. there will come a day where people will expect all mobile devices to do this.. its still early and that is specifically why apple's main selling point of "access any website" is a great one.

mobile websites importance will not diminish.. they will actually thrive in this new world... with or without .mobi

this is why, for example, when i go to google.com on my iphone it brings me to the mobile version automatically...

Originally posted by mjnels
this is a dead argument.

an iphone commercial features a dotmobi website on it... im not saying tons of people noticed it was a dotmobi domain.. the point is a .mobi domain is just one way of having a mobile website... the iphone did not kill the concept of mobile websites... the only people that say this are clueless.

iPhone does not kill the concept of mobile websites. But it does provide a significant competition to the concept of mobile websites

-> see report "Google on Wednesday said it had seen 50 times more searches on Apple‘s iPhone than any other mobile handset" http://www.ft.com/cms/s/667f13de-da6...0779fd2ac.html

50 times more search engine PPC revenue from iphone users than any other mobile handset.

“Google on Wednesday said it had seen 50 times more searches on Apple‘s iPhone than any other mobile handset, adding weight to the group’s confidence at being able to generate significant revenues from the mobile internet.

We thought it was a mistake and made our engineers check the logs again,” Vic Gundotra, head of Google’s mobile operations told the Financial Times at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

If the trend continues and other handset manufacturers follow Apple’s lead in making web access easy, the number of mobile searches will overtake fixed internet searches “within the next several years”, Mr Gundotra said.

Originally posted by touchring
iPhone does not kill the concept of mobile websites. But it does provide a significant competition to the concept of mobile websites

-> see report "Google on Wednesday said it had seen 50 times more searches on Apple‘s iPhone than any other mobile handset" http://www.ft.com/cms/s/667f13de-da6...0779fd2ac.html

50 times more search engine PPC revenue from iphone users than any other mobile handset.

when you go to google.com on an iphone it redirects you to google's "mobile website"

type it in on your iphone, and watch...

i think the only question is... is dot mobi needed for this?

Originally posted by The Columbian
i think the only question is... is dot mobi needed for this?

of course not.

but certain people still dont know where they stand on mobile websites in general.

its hilarious really..

Originally posted by mjnels
of course not.

i thought that was the topic, no?

not following your points... but no one's ever accused me of being a quick study

touchring said the .mobi is getting "hit by the iphone"

.mobi simply = mobile website

if the iphone killed .mobi it killed the entire concept of mobile websites.. and this is clearly not the case.

That's right, mobile websites are not killed, but iphone took the heat off dot mobi speculation.

.mobi was originally touted by many as the only way to ensure compliant content on mobile devices - that was it's usp at the time. That becomes less relevant if the devices themselves can render any content.

I get what you're saying about mobile specific sites - they can make it a better experience than the normal site, but companies can weigh up if it's worth it to them to develop mobile specific sites knowing that as time progresses more and more people can access their normal site on a mobile device.

I'd argue that that has to have an impact on the desire/need to target them with specific content.

.mobi is wrapped up in all this and even moreso when you bring in speculation which relies on not only people wanting to develop a mobile site, but also them wanting to pay a premium for the specific .mobi site vs using an alternate delivery strategy like sub-domains or, auto-redirect.

Originally posted by touchring
That's right, mobile websites are not killed, but iphone took the heat off dot mobi speculation.

that makes entirely no sense...

Originally posted by safesys
.mobi was originally touted by many as the only way to ensure compliant content on mobile devices - that was it's usp at the time. That becomes less relevant if the devices themselves can render any content.

I get what you're saying about mobile specific sites - they can make it a better experience than the normal site, but companies can weigh up if it's worth it to them to develop mobile specific sites knowing that as time progresses more and more people can access their normal site on a mobile device.

I'd argue that that has to have an impact on the desire/need to target them with specific content.

.mobi is wrapped up in all this and even moreso when you bring in speculation which relies on not only people wanting to develop a mobile site, but also them wanting to pay a premium for the specific .mobi site vs using an alternate delivery strategy like sub-domains or, auto-redirect.

it probably has had some impact... but also mobile sites are about so much more than just a website that fits the screen size.. what im betting on is that internet-on-mobile-devices will be such a huge part of daily life in the future and open up so many doors for new services that never existed before, that the majority of websites will start targeting mobile users specifically with sites designed from the ground-up.

I totally glazed over this thread, as I refuse to acknowledge anyone or thing named Pinky.