BIOS: Technology Means Business

With Internet-enabled mobile phones outnumbering PCs four to one, .mobi, the new top level domain specific for mobile phones, has enormous potential. It is backed not only by the entire mobile industry, but also by Internet giants such as Microsoft and Google.

According to mTLD, also known as Dotmobi, there are four times as many mobile phones as PCs that can connect to the Internet. That is an enormous, largely untapped user base counting in the hundreds of millions. This is the market that Dotmobi wants to open up. Dotmobi manages the .mobi top level domain, an Internet domain specifically intended for use with mobile devices.

Dotmobi is backed by the big players of the mobile industry, companies like Ericsson, Nokia, T-Mobile and Vodafone, as well as the entire GSM Association. The latter represents more than 690 GSM mobile phone operators in 213 territories and countries across the world. Not only that, Dotmobi has both Microsoft and Google on board.

With this massive support from all parts of the mobile industry, Dotmobi has removed the danger of their standards not being widely accepted. “The beauty is that although their motives may differ, they all share the same goal,” said Alexa Raad, VP of marketing and business development at Dotmobi, in an interview with Ipwalk. “They all want more Internet content and a better user experience.”

The user experience is central to Dotmobi. Currently, accessing Internet content from a mobile phone can be an inconsistent and often frustrating experience. To change this, Dotmobi has provided design guidelines for how to make web sites that work well with mobile phones. They will also enforce a few basic standards to ensure that the user experience will stay consistent. The .mobi domain will act as a seal of approval.

“We want to make it easier for regular people,” said Raad. “Regardless of what mobile phone you are using to access the Internet, regardless of the application, it should just work and be easy to use.”

Another requirement to the success of the .mobi domain is that there is enough content available. Dotmobi is well aware of this. “We are not just talking about the Amazons and eBays,” said Raad. “Internet grew when small businesses went online. We want to facilitate the creation of content. Providing the design guidelines is one step.”

With the industry backing in place, a huge potential user base, and a platform that most people carry with them all hours of the day, the .mobi domain is off to a good start. Now the last building block to success is getting quality content, and Dotmobi will do everything in their power to enable everyone, big and small, to build content. With hundreds of millions of potential users, however, getting content providers interested should not be a problem.

Dotmobi will start accepting domain registrations on June 12 for trademark holders, but members of the mobile industry can start as early as May 22. On August 28 the .mobi domain opens up registrations for the general public.

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