Last year dotMobi (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd.) was appointed by ICANN as the official global registry for the .mobi top level domain. dotMobi is backed by leading mobile operators, network device manufacturers and Internet content providers. Their investors include Ericsson, Google, GSM Association, Hutchison, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefónica Móviles, TIM, Visa and Vodafone.
The core mission of dotMobi is two-fold, to become the most ubiquitous domain name for the mobile web (i.e. get the consumer to think .mobi rather than .com when using the Internet from their handset) and to become the critical link between mobile operators, handset manufacturers, content providers / brands and users to make phones the tool of choice for the mobile web.
A mobile device requires an entirely different user experience than that of a traditional PC or laptop. Just because a traditional website is now viewable on many phones, that does not equate to a tangible, fulfilling user experience. Unfortunately, that is exactly what many companies provide today. Obviously, the device is smaller, the screen space is limited, and the traditional QWERTY keyboard input method is not ideal. Further, the web is probably being accessed on a mobile phone while the end-user is driving, on the move, or otherwise engaged by some other activity or media device. If you currently have a transactional web site, then I strongly urge you to get a dotMobi version as well. If you don’t, you will be losing business.