MTLD CEO Neil Edwards said the mobile Internet is in its infancy in terms of content, but he added that, the birth of .mobi should help inspire users to go online with their cellphones and PDAs.
Edwards said MTLD estimates expect a “land rush” over the next year, with more than 200,000 mobile sites likely to be registered.
A .mobi URL costs $25 for a minimum of two years.
Sites using the .mobi suffix must be designed to meet standards for optimal mobile surfing.
"If you try your favorite websites on a mobile phone, the chances are they are not going to work,” .Net magazine editor Dan Oliver said. “A lot of people would say now that the mobile web experience is not a particularly rich one."
Edwards said that MLTD would actively enforce mobile-specific standards to optimize the user experience.
Industry analysts say that only one in 10 mobile users surf the Internet using phones and PDAs, but Edwards said he thinks more sites offering mobile-specific content will address that problem.
Thomas Husson, an analyst with Jupiter Research, said he wasn’t so sure that .mobi would take hold.
"I don't see any structural reasons why .mobi would be anymore successful than .TV or anything else,” Husson said. "Having said that, it is good that a common set of guidelines for the mobile experience is being laid down."
Nearly 13,000 companies have already registered .mobi addresses as part of a pre-registration process open to trademark holders.
