.mobi's Latest Plan To Help The Mobile Internet: Give Us More Cash, Please

from the payment-required-upfront dept

Wed, Sep 13th 2006 10:50am — Carlo Longino

Ah, the .mobi top-level domain -- the one that's supposed to somehow supposed to get everybody using the internet on their mobile phone, but increasingly looks like it's nothing more than a blatant money-grab -- is back with its latest plan to boost its bank account, er, boost the mobile internet. It's put out a call for "advisors" to "reach out to the mobile internet ecosystem, keep in touch with trends, and understand, assess and prioritise the needs of the entire mobile internet community", and who will be able to "to shape the future of internet services to mobile devices". Of course, you've got to pay for the privilege to "advise" mTLD, the company behind .mobi -- starting at 295 euros a year for individual observers, up to 5000 euros per year for companies that want to actively participate, and for those with 30,000 euros burning a hole in their pocket, there's a "Foundation" membership available. So let's get this straight: .mobi is interested in outside input, but only from people who can pony up significant amounts of cash. mTLD's arguments were already unconvincing, and this hardly helps them look like they're interested in anything other than money, despite what they say. But remember, according to the CEO, .mobi's not a money-grab, because even though they're setting up various programs to inflate their revenues, their prices could always be higher.

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brian, 13 Sep 2006 @ 11:19am

.mobi ...............lol
isnt .com eaiser to type into a mobile browser? one less character I would think.

wahtever...I have some .WORK to do.
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mmrtnt (profile), 13 Sep 2006 @ 11:24am

The Next PC
I laugh when I hear someone insist that the cellphone is the new PC and as such, the platform for the next round of wild growth in the tech sector. What they're conveniently ignoring is the fact that, by and large, the PC was/is an open platform and its connection to the internet is mostly unencumbered by any one (hardware, software, service provider) vendor's visions of fabulous profits.
It seems as if everyone in the mobile space subconsciously thinks that he or she is going to engineer the next technology coup, a la Microsoft. That horse is so far out of the barn, it's turned into a car.

MjM
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Sanguine Dream, 13 Sep 2006 @ 11:48am

So lets get this straight...
they want to hype .mobi for what reason? This sounds like an attempt to circulate buzz about something that just happens to relate to their own product. I'll bet they got a trademark/patent/copyright on .mobi (you can on just about anything else) and now they need to make the money back. I just need my cell phone to make/recieve calls without (getting dropped) and keep a few contacts, thats it. Once that is solved someone can work on the extra bells and whistles.
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shawn mccollum, 13 Sep 2006 @ 12:39pm

I've never understood the need for .mobi, my mobile site is doing fine with a .com domain.
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Greg, 13 Sep 2006 @ 7:57pm

the need for anything really
shawn's site doesn't seem to actually be commercial, and neither are half the other .com sites. Given the proportion of .com vs everything else, .com is virtually redundant. Why even bother with TLDs except where subdomains are tightly controlled (e.g. .gov means its a real government site).
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Michael J. O'Farrell, 14 Sep 2006 @ 10:22am

dotMobi Advisory Group is an Independent Not For P
The dotMobi Advisory Group (MAG) has been set-up as an independent not-for-profit industry association accredited by dotMobi (mTLD) per its ICANN agreement and it is not owned nor operated nor financed by dotMobi (mTLD). See our web site at mag.mtld.mobi for more detailed information.

The approach for starting an independent industry group has been the practice of many industry-based ventures over the years and has successfully made sure that all stakeholders interested influencing the direction of a technology, service and/or business category has a place to dialogue, debate and collaborate on issues that could effect the communities represented in an open, transparent way.

Membership to the MAG is open to all interested parties who want to influence and assist in shaping the future of the .mobi domain space. With the MAG set up as an independent, not-for-profit self-financed group, the MAG Steering Committee (all volunteers) decided that in order achieve our goals of serving the global dotMobi stakeholder community it would be in the best interest of the MAG to be an organisation that included: a formal structure for vetting and voting on issues the community would like voiced to dotMobi as a whole, membership categories to enable the MAG to work in the best interest of its stakeholder members, and the necessary funding to support a global platform to carry out its work in a self-finnanced manner, independent to dotMobi (mTLD) investment and influence.

The MAG will act as a vehicle for mobile industry stakeholders to network and voice their opinions and ideas for the betterment of the mobile Internet experience - that is our mission.

We would like invite you, and your readers, to be part of the MAG - whether you want to join as an active member (membership categories and fees are on the MAG web site) or participate in our online discussion forums and roundtables for free - it is really up to you to decide how you, and your readers, would like to have your voice heard by MAG members and the dotMobi community.

Sincerely,

Michael J. O'Farrell
Chair of the dotMobi Advisory Group
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Mobinomy, 5 Nov 2006 @ 9:16am

The Good Thing about dotMobi
There's something interesting I'm seeing in many of the online discussions re dotMobi. In almost all discussions I see people complaining a whole lot about the concept of .mobi, and at many of these discussions, I see someone connected with the the dotMobi organization join the discussions and put forward their points of view in a polite way.
We may or may not agree with them, but let's give credit where it belongs. These guys are willing to listen to most of the complaints, and are willing to engage in a conversation. I have not seen too many business ventures do that
By the way, though I co-ordinate the a dotMobi sites directory at our site Mobinomy ( http://www.mobinomy.com ) neither I nor my site has anything to do with the dotMobi organization.
From Mobinomy.com - For the Mobile Economy
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Jam4romhaifa, 28 Dec 2006 @ 9:54am

.mobi
1.Do you guys suppose that the mobile phone companies will promote .mobi soon, and if they do, then .mobi is no scam?
orevenifyahoo,orgoogleormicrosoft did it?

2.Also will.com be phased out of cell phones and be replaced by .mobi.
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Jean Pierre, 25 Jan 2007 @ 6:32am

.mobi
JAM4romhaifa

it is a posibility that .mobi will be the default for cell phones, so the switch script that can detect weather a person is accessing a website via cell phone or pc, will determine thats its a cell phone and in this case default to .mobi, in which case .mobi will be bigger than any .'s ever to hit the market.

gotta shoot tiery henry interview online
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bhavin jain, 4 Nov 2008 @ 9:41am

Txmob.com makes mobile search easy.
Txmob.com is a mobile search engine that allows users to search for mobile content, games, ringtone and other mobile downloadables.

Txmob.com only displays the best results that are suitable for your mobile phone enabling you to discover the best of the Internet on your phone
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