by Search Copywriter
Y. Sulaiman
It is estimated that there are currently over 2 billion mobile phone users across the world, and that only one in ten of them use their phones to surf the web. This lack of mobile web usage occurs for a variety of reasons such as cost, poor content and graphic quality, and slow speed. However, an unprecedented plan to allow the general public to register websites ending in .mobi (dotmobi) may be set to revolutionise the mobile web industry. The organisation in charge of overseeing domain name registration, Mobile Top Level Domain (MTLD), expects over 200,000 dotmobi sites to be registered within the year in what is being called the dotmobi "land rush" - and it already has 13,000 trademark companies registered as part of a special pre-registration process.Y. Sulaiman
Neil Edwards, chief executive of MTLD, has said:
"The mobile web from the standpoint of content is in its absolute infancy. If you try your favourite websites on a mobile phone, the chances are they are not going to work."
For example, a visit to the BBC homepage on your mobile is an entirely different web experience to viewing it on your PC.
MTLD guarantees that websites with a registered dotmobi address will be optimised for mobile handsets in order to ensure a consistent experience for users. Registration will be open to the public from September 26 2006 onwards, and will cost around $24(£14).
While promises being made to consumers about dotmobi sites offer a wide range of possibilities for the future of mobile web surfing, a number of industry commentators have expressed reservations over the scheme. Dan Oliver, editor of .Net magazine, argues that while the mobile web experience sorely needs updating, the MTLD promise of a "consistent experience" is unrealistic. Mr. Oliver said: "There are standards laid down for websites now for computers, but that does not mean they are met" - though Mr Edwards insists that the MTLD will be enforcing these strict standards.
Thomas Husson, a mobile analyst at Jupiter Research, commented: "I don't see any structural reason why dotmobi would be any more successful than .tv or anything else. Having said that, it is good that a common set of guidelines for the mobile experience is being laid down."
This general tone seems to be echoed within the mobile phone industry itself. Robin O'Kelly, Head of Corporate Communications at T-Mobile, stated:
"Overall I think that dotmobi domain names may be a nice transition for customers to be able to use web sites quickly and easily on their mobiles, however we would really like to see mobile web technology advance to the point where you will be able to browse the web with the same graphical content and functionality on your mobile as you get on your home computer."
The "dotmobi land rush" has also inspired fears over cyber squatters registering profitable domain names, and Mr. Edwards readily admits: "The attractiveness of dotmobi names to cyber squatters is, I believe far less than dotcom."
However, despite all these reservations, the precedent set by this move towards the mobile web appears to have gained enough momentum to sustain the buzz, at least in the short term. With MTLD insisting that consumers will see costs come down to similar levels as SMS - for example to, "20 cents a page" - and taking into account that there are four times as many mobile phones as PCs in the world, the possibilities for tapping into the global mobile community seem potentially endless.
