Cellphones moved a step closer to being fully-fledged Internet terminals when the .mobi domain was introduced this week.
Until now, surfing the Web using a cellphone was hamstrung by two key issues: the speed of the connection and image-heavy websites designed for much larger computer screens. But that is rapidly changing with customised content for cellphones, which the .mobi domain should accelerate, and faster wireless data services such as 3G — and a 3,5G upgrade dubbed “3G on steriods” due later this year — that make mobile surfing much faster.
The new so-called top-level domain — which joins .com, .org and .net — will contain content specifically designed for cellphones and their small screens.
So-called smartphones are rapidly appearing as the new all-in-one cellphone-cum-personal digital assistant (PDA), and Internet access is a key part of the strategy to entice users to spend more on downloading news, music, video clips and ringtones.
Currently, South Africans can use services like Vodafone Live, MTN’s Loaded or Motorola’s tie-up with MTV for these, but the .mobi domain is expected to provide much more significant content from numerous other sources.
There are about 1,8-billion cellphones globally but only between 12% and 14% of these are active Internet users.