“”Playboy Webmasters has announced its newest addition to the family—Playboy.mobi, the mobile version of Playboy.com.”

“Forecast to be the number one method of internet access by 2013, mobile devices have quickly become the go-to choice for millions of consumers around the world.”

“With an estimated 5 percent or more of web traffic stemming from mobile users, Playboy believes that mobile is a profitable market to maximize upon.”

“We have solid tools out of the gate and in the future, affiliates can rely on regular updates including exclusive content, white labels, banners, wallpapers, screensavers, RSS Feeds, and more,” the company said in an announcement. “Affiliates who utilize our mobile script on their websites will reap the profitable rewards of instantly redirecting mobile traffic to Playboy.mobi.”

 …

This time its the .Mobi extension that get covered by the south Florida publication.

Once again the domain king, Rick Schwartz is quoted extensively, this time in regards to his record setting purchase of Flowers.mobi for $200K back in 2006.

The newspapers comments on .Mobi, are less than kind:

“Schwartz and other Internet tycoons who paid tens of thousands or more scooping up domain names that end in “.mobi”, which are designed to be easily viewed on mobile screens, have found the names are now all but worthless.”

“Before the bottom fell out, there were some eye-opening sales in mobi. Poker.mobi was purchased in 2007 for $150,000 — but fast-forward to today, and it only has basic instructions on how to play the game.”

“Also in 2007, ringtones.mobi sold for $145,000 and news.mobi sold $110,000 — both of which don’t have any content besides a few ads. SportsBook.mobi, which someone bought for $129,800, still says “coming in 2007.” Casino.mobi was the star of 2009, when it sold for $135,000, brokered by Pompano Beach-based Moniker, an Oversee company.”

Mike “Zappy” Zapolin, is quoted in the article as saying:

“Those who invested in dot mobi domain names missed the moment and are pretty much out luck. Investors trying to sell those names today are just really hoping that somebody is going to be a bigger sucker than them.”

Personally I still have around 30 .mobi I acquired on the release and never bought a .mobi in the aftermarket.

Most of the domains cited by the artcile, we bought back win 2006, when .Mobi was just released and before the iPhone came out including Flowers.Mobi

While most people will put flowers.mobi on top of their worst domain purchases of all time, my spot belongs to the $135K purchase of Casino.mobi.

For those early investors in 2006, .Mobi was just a shot, which did not pan out, but it the extension did make some sense at the time.

In theory a mobile application extension seemed to be needed for the ever growing use of mobile devices. (otherwise the extension would never have been approved)

So those investors who bought .mobi based on what they saw at the time, which was a huge move by users to mobile devices coupled with an extension & Technology to create websites for mobile devices, it made sense.…

This sale represents the second highest price ever paid for a .mobi name.

As you may recall,  Flowers.mobi sold for $200K, Fun.mobi for $100K RealEstate.mobi for $85,000.

Certainly this  is the highest priced paid for a .mobi since the extension’s initial release premium auctions held at TRAFFIC shows in 2007.

The resale market for .Mobi’s  has been very quite, to say the least, almost non-existent, over the last year, making this sale even more surprising.

For example, during the last TRAFFIC show Moniker Auction, the highest selling .mobi domain according to my records was john.mobi which sold for $1K.

Will this sale heat up other .mobi sales and reinvigorate the whole extension?

Certainly this should give .mobi a huge boost which it desperately needed

We congratulate all parties.

Here is some more info according to the press release:

Infomeda plans to use the name as an online portal, with location-based information for bricks-and-mortar casino locations, reviews of mobile casinos as well as “fun money” casino-style games and gaming tools.  The site has launched a beta version, and an official release is expected later this month.

“This is a very strong sale for both parties in this transaction,” said Cahn.  “Gaming enthusiasts are very interested in online applications, and continually growing interest in the mobile Web indicates that the Casino.mobi site will perform well when it launches.”

dotMobi CEO Trey Harvin concurred with Cahn and added, “It’s great to see the value of .mobi names recognized in dollars. It’s even more meaningful to see the name used to identify content that takes advantage of mobile phones and gives game-players a one-of-a-kind experience that can’t be duplicated on a desktop PC.”…

Today in the for the first time I have seen, the .mobi registry gave a 2 character domain away.

The domain 53.mobi to was awarded to Cincinnati based Fifth Third Bank for its recently launched mobile banking service.

The bank launched its mobile banking service in select markets in February and continues to roll out the service throughout its 12-state footprint. With Fifth Third Mobile Banking, customers can use their mobile phones to view information such as account balances and pending and posted transactions, to transfer funds, and to find Fifth Third ATMs and branch locations.

The bank already owns 53.com…

It’s free to list an unlimited number of sites however there is an additional charge to have your domains listed as a “showcase” name.

The site is also offering to appraise your .mobi domains for at a charge.

According to the press release, Domainers who list their .mobi sites on MobiSiteTrader.com may also park their sites for free, and the templates offered are visually appealing and are guaranteed to mobile compliant. The parked sites offer end user visitors an option to click on sponsored ads that resolve to mobile phones, or web ads that are designed for computer viewing. The host company will keep the web click revenue, and the name owner will keep 100% of profits for the mobile clicks. Domain name owners who park will first add the domain names to the database, change their nameservers, and then place the names into the parking program via a simple form.

Some of the domain listed on the site include:

Key enhancements will allow users to initiate searches faster using text or voice.

Yahoo also plans to provide greater relevance through richer, more detailed search results by opening up Yahoo oneSearch to publishers to integrate content, simplify search input with Search Assist and voice-enabled search, and make search instantly accessible on the idle screen of many phones.

This looks like a pretty cool feature being able to search with your voice instead of pounding away with the 1,2 and 3′s

The big loser in this may again be the .mobi’s

As you know we are not a big believer in the .mobi extension.

The vast majority of people who use their cell phone to browse the internet are using the iphone, you know the one with the .com, and not the .mobi button.

Last month Google did not bid for the spectrum space auctioned off by the FCC last month.  This may have given the .mobi platform a boost.

Now if you can search using your voice through Yahoo.com on your mobile phone where does the .mobi extension stand?

Certainly the future does not appear to us to be bright for click thru’s generated from .mobi’s.…