UMPC Failure: .mobi means mobile internet and mobile site

Filed under: Computers, News, Ultra Mobile PC | By: Daniel
Posted on: November 28, 2007 | 2 Comments

UMPC
The pullout, fold out, flexscreens (as known by many names but all essentially the same function) are indeed a great concept, albeit quite impractical at present and will be for some time.

Most designs are based on an LCD embedded (sandwiched) between two plastic and mylar sheets. The issue here is durability and longevity.

And can you imagine the billions of tweens and teens using a mobile device like this? Are you willing to shell out a few hundred bucks for a product that most likely would not stand up to the rigors of daily use by your kids?

My take on this will be the same as the UMPC…a great idea and concept but basically…who needs em?

The UMPC is quite the failure by many counts (manufactures and sales clearly show this) and has found a home not in the everyday consumer but in the hands of some traveling business folks. Not quite what MS, Samsung, Sony and the other backers had hoped for.

A recurring theme that I see over and over and over is this next latest and greatest product to come out is the death of .mobi.

Are you serious? A product spells the death of a domain extension? That is quite remarkable.

So a product designed for telecommunications and mobile connectivity is not suitable and worthy of having a domain extension to designate that this site is mobile compliant.

You are making some grand assumptions of the global population who could really care less about a domain name. Who do you think are the bulk of cell phone users at present? Before you went off to write this wild claim of .mobi not needed, did you do any research on who .mobi is trying to connect with?

The only ones that this whole .mobi issue seems to be an issue in the first place are domainers. Do you really think a kid surfing on a mobile device is going to give a damn what extension he is using or suddenly freak out when he discovers it is not a .com site he is on? Can you for one minute even begin to grasp the notion that it might just be this 13-25 year old bunch that embraces this new fangled domain as being “theirs” and “not your father’s internet”?

Step back and get out of the mindset of domain speak and put yourself in the consumer’s shoes. What one domain says mobile internet and mobile site better and clearer than .mobi? So much talk about branding.

Branding what? The difficult concept that .mobi means mobile? Damn, give 6th and 7th graders more credit than that.

Give 6th and 7th graders more credit than domainers give each other.

Source: Thanks to .pH

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Comments

2 Responses to “UMPC Failure: .mobi means mobile internet and mobile site”

  1. Gary says:

    Absolutely agree with .PH
    It’s about time the oldies moved aside & got with the program

    .com is so very 1990’s grandad… get over it ;-)

    .mobi = global AND universal* TLD

    (*for every screen from 1.5″ to 50″)

    any other extension can be used for these mobile compatible sites but the TLD of choice will be .mobi because it’s like the label that tells you whats in the tin… a trustmark…
    IMHO there are far too many broken, archived, defunct .com sites / content out there that it’s like an information graveyard…

    .mobi = TLD for a new generation.

  2. Bill says:

    I agree with the writer that the consumer will tend to go with what is easy to use AND REMEMBER. So as .mobi-mobile becomes more commonly seen and used in the US as already looks to be happening in Europe, we can expect to hear much more from .mobi.

    The trend for many businesspeople on the go seems to be away from lugging laptops and dumb phones to only carrying smartphones that can handle most of the tasks. Small screen targeted websites (relative to laptop/PC) will grow in popularity out of necessity. Only one domain name extension has been introduced to address that markey specifically - .mobi. As I’ve seen written before: .com is for the computer - .mobi is for your mobile

    WSJ article - Time to Leave the Laptop Behind:
    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122477763884262815.html
    .

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