Beijing.mobi-coming soon?

With the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing scheduled to kick-off on Friday 8th August, speculation is mounting as to whether or not the often gossiped about flagship dot.mobi site for the city, beijing.mobi, will finally be unveiled.

The mTLD or dot.mobi consortium has, since its inception, focussed heavily on developing city mobile sites, with barcelona.mobi following the initial helsinki.mobi development.

One of the touted strategies of the consortium is to synchronise city.mobi launches with prominent events, and the 2008 Olympics could not offer a better platform for this, given the substantial amount of publicity (both postive and negative) that the games have attracted this year. Much of this media frenzy will peak this month, offering a great opportunity for mTLD to achieve a truly global launch for the site.

It would also help to stave off critics and sceptics alike, who have pointed out how the m.dot domain still remains predominant in North America.It would also give the whole dot.mobi movement a shot in the arm at a time when its main shareholders (the mobile operators and equipment manufacturers) are increasingly coming head-to-head with each other in their attempt to retain (or attain) control over the mobile subscriber.

I love Mobile Web Awards

I will be on a speaker panel at Informa's Mobile Web Europe event on the 22-24 September in London to discuss the next killer ap in mobile social networking (what do YOU think it is?) -the mix of topics on the conference programme is probably the most comprehensive available for this area, and so there are bound to be interesting learning points and clues to the future shape of things to come.

One of the side events is the I love Mobile Web Awards sponsored by the dotmobi consortium, aimed at recognising the best designed and developed mobile internet site.

Enter one of six exciting categories for free before 22 August 2008, and you can have your work featured online at ilovemobileweb.com for the industry to view.The judging panel includes Michael o'Farrell, Chairman of the dotmobi advisory group.This is a unique opportunity to have your innovative ideas showcased to a highly qualified audience, so if you are in the .mobi site space, don't miss out!

The Great iPhone Debate

Much too much has already been said about the iPhone in general, but especially recently, with the 3G version rolling out across Europe and news of Apple selling 1 million units in the first weekend of sale (this compares to the 74 days it took to sell the original iPhone).

What we are talking about here is an emotional product, a marketing success by Apple, who have managed to exploit an unsatisfied need in the market with a neat design and just the right amount of cleverly orchestrated hype to make the iPhone one of the most wanted objects in recent history.

That we are talking about an emotional product is clear by the way certain operators enthuse about its virtues (irrationally some may say) and how developers and mobile enthusiasts equally lambast it or praise it.

At the recent Mobile 2.0 conference in Barcelona, Antonio Vince-Stabyl from itsmy.com, expressed his hatred thus, in a now popular quote: "what does the iPhone have that makes it special? It is just about browsing, browsing and more browsing". Antonio also confided later that he had initially handed all his employees a new iPhone and was later flooded with returns because it was simply impractical for business use.

Love it or hate it, the iPhone is here to stay and Apple would be wise to maintain its pricing premium by keeping it in the niche market that it currently comfortably dominates (more media-tainment than telephony).

I just love the story told to me yesterday by a Dutch acquaintance, of a flashy business type busy discussing an important deal on his iPhone, getting out of his taxi in a hurry and putting the phone hurriedly back to his ear after paying the fare, only to have its glossy, slippery surface glide right over his face and form an arc in the air, before landing neatly in a rose bush.

Stricken with panic, the businessman shouted at the rose bush and continued his conversation from a distance...just one of those hazards of the beautiful, sleek and smooth iPhone surface you don't hear about so much..but then again, I wonder how many iPhone aficionados are actually using it for calls...