Daily Domainer

This morning, Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Inc., introduced the iPhone, which is scheduled to launch in June 2007. The iPhone combines an iPod and highly advanced smartphone into one device and runs on OSX, which ensures compatibility with Safari, Apple's full-featured web browser. The iPhone displays websites as they were meant to be, and thanks to the built-in touchscreen users can quickly zoom in on parts of websites they want to see more closely.

.mobi was intended to give cell phone users a way to ensure that they would be able to properly display mobile-optimized websites on their devices. With the iPhone displaying full-featured websites, is there still a need for scaled-down versions for mobile phones? And if that's the case, does .mobi still have a chance to establish itself before the majority of websites will have already optimized their primary websites for basic mobile browsers?

Our guess is as good as anyone else's. Here are a few factors to consider:

• The iPhone will be quite expensive at $499 to $599 and its global market share will probably be limited to single digits over the coming years. (Apple is aiming to obtain a 1% market share by 2008.) The vast majority of phones will continue to have small displays and basic browsers for at least the next 2 years.
• The iPhone hasn't launched yet. It is scheduled for June 2007 because Apple needs to obtain FCC approval first. A lot of things can happen in five months which could affect this issue in ways we cannot now imagine.

The Daily Domainer believes that .mobi still has a chance to become popular if the dotMobi registry can establish strategic partnerships with cell phone carriers and manufacturers. However, with the iPhone scheduled to mix things up, it will clearly be a race against time.

Watch the Safari browser in action on the iPhone: http://www.apple.com/iphone/internet/

Categories: Domain Extensions
Tags: .mobi, apple, iphone