What's Up with .mobi?

Yesterday, Sedo's .mobi auction closed with games.mobi ringing in $401,500. (I caught that page just at the end of the auction, so it remains to be seen if that bid holds).

Also, according to Elliot's Blog (where you can find a list of sold .mobi domains), music.mobi sold for $616,000.

Astonishing, to say the least.

Pretty sweet for a TLD that most non-domainers/end-users know little or nothing about. Perhaps the buyer knows something that the average small-time domainer (like me) does not.

Games and music: nice generics/money terms, but I suspect that the buyers are taking an expensive risk on an untried TLD. Don't get me wrong; I have a few .mobi's in my portfolio and would be delighted if they were worth more than the regular fee I paid.

But I doubt very much if, as a buyer, I'll be chasing the .mobi aftermarket any time soon. I will continue to register good solid generics because one never knows when (or if) the .mobi TLD will be developed as a viable cell phone platform.

From my perspective, .mobi will suddenly become a must-have TLD when I can pick up my cellphone, text "games," and automatically be directed to games.mobi.

Otherwise, it's just another TLD like .biz.

But that huge bid makes me wonder if such a .mobi platform is on the horizon.

Ms Domainer