Approval Of Dot-Mobi Web Site Extension Is Imminent

By JOSEPH CHECKLERMarch 18, 2005 4:31 p.m. Of ONLINE RETAIL REPORT
NEW YORK -- The adoption of a .mobi extension for Web sites designed for access via cell phones and other handheld devices appears imminent, and may force more e-tailers to consider creating simpler, small-screen-friendly sites for on-the-go customers.
Online Retail Report has learned through a source familiar with the situation that the creation of the .mobi extension - which was introduced last March by a group led by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Nokia Corp. (NOK) and Vodafone Group PLC (VOD) - is likely to be ratified by the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, either Monday or at a meeting in April.
Bill Plummer, vice president of external affairs for Nokia who also works on the consortium, said he hopes .mobi will be approved by the end of the first quarter so the first sites with that domain will be available beginning in the second half of 2005.
Back in December, Icann tentatively approved the .mobi top-level domain, sending the proposal into a "technical and commercial" review phase. That phase is now complete and, barring unforeseen circumstances, the extension is cleared for final approval.
Since it got to Icann's desk in March 2004, the .mobi extension has come under fire from many in the industry, including the World Wide Web Consortium, which said that the way the Internet functions is independent of any specific device from which it is accessed. Plummer said that while the consortium agrees "there is one Internet," it thinks that adding .mobi would allow a lot more flexibility for all types of Web sites.
Some companies that do e-commerce, including Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), are also part of the consortium and, although Plummer wouldn't speculate on what types of applications may be developed, he agreed that e-commerce will probably play a large role. A Huge Untapped Mobile Market
Even with 1.69 billion people now owning some kind of wireless device, according to Yankee Group Research Inc., few e-commerce companies have designed light versions of their Web sites that can be easily viewed on the smaller screens of Web-capable personal-digital-assistant devices, handhelds and wireless phones.
As of the end of 2004, Symbian Ltd. operating systems controlled 66% of the mobile operating system market, down from 83% in 2003. Gaining ground has been Microsoft, which jumped from 2% to 16% of the market in 2004, and Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM), which went from 8% to 11%, according to the Yankee Group.
Since 1999, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) has had a small-screen-friendly site called Amazon Anywhere that allows customers to click on just eight product categories, plus a "more" button that links to zShops and auctions. In Japan, owners of certain Web-enabled phones can use the phone to scan a product's bar code and get automatic price quotes and purchasing options from Amazon.
But in the U.S., the URL for Amazon Anywhere is extremely long, a problem that a .mobi domain could eliminate. Of course, once the URL - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/dt/pda-1.0/subst/aa/pda/home.html - is keyed in, it can be saved as a favorite. But finding it in the first place could be a problem.
Antonio Perrotta, founder of pdaPortal, which tracks which Web sites have small-screen and mobile sites, said that, since there is no uniform domain for those sites, people aren't aware of them.
"Pretend I'm a non-technical user that would like to browse Amazon.com from my mobile device," said Perrotta. "I won't know how to begin. There is no standard way of reaching these PDA-friendly Web sites." Auction Sites Leading The Way
Auction sites like eBay Inc. (EBAY) and Overstock.com Inc.'s (OSTK) auctions are far ahead of the curve when it comes to portable access. Overstock recently announced that Abidia would offer O-Anywhere for Windows mobile users and soon for RIM's Blackberry devices. Abidia, as well as Bonfire Media LLC and other companies, also work with eBay, often building their applications atop eBay's existing ones.
"It's a little mini-eBay on the phone," said Matt Ackley, senior director of eBay's platform solutions group, speaking specifically of the Bonfire application. "You can pretty much do all the functionality."
Holly MacDonald-Korth, vice president of auctions for Overstock, said that, since the regular Overstock auctions site doesn't display well over phones and other mobile devices, the requests for handheld auction access got louder during a conference she attended in October.
"I went to a conference of online auction sellers and I would say that 90% of them had a [Web-enabled handheld device] or a pocket PC," MacDonald-Korth said. "Because of the timing sensitivity of auctions, it's really important for people to have real-time data wherever they are."
But in non-auction settings, the mobile-device users have different needs. David Heit, senior product manager for RIM, said e-commerce companies would be well-advised to follow the lead of his company.
"It's not just a matter of making it friendly, but also simplifying it," Heit said. He pointed out that Google Inc.'s (GOOG) site is already PDA- and Blackberry-friendly, since its home page is just a big, white screen with a search box on it.
"People don't want to go through 12 levels of menus to get what they want," Heit said. "When I access it, I might not have time. I kind of want to get down to what I need to do and not spend a half-hour trying to surf around for what I'm looking for."
As of now, very few big-name e-commerce companies have mobile device-specific Web sites. The pending adoption of the .mobi domain may pave the way for a change in that area.
"There is something to be said about offering customers simple, predictable, reliable and a high-quality experience," said Nokia's Plummer. "I could see how an e-commerce retailer might want to capitalize on that."
(Online Retail Report covers online and multi-channel retailers and the markets in which they operate.)
-By Joseph Checkler, Dow Jones Newsletters; 201-938-4297; joseph.checkler@dowjones.com