dotMobi released highlights of a new study on mobile web trends that
shows mobile web content creation continues to explode.
Based on a review of the largest top-level Internet domains, dotMobi
has seen a sevenfold growth in the number of mobile websites in the
past year, proving that a revolution in mobile content availability is
at hand.
When dotMobi first performed this study a year ago, 150,000 mobile websites were available. These sites are discovered by mobile-friendly
Internet address designations like ".mobi" or "mobile." or "/wap,"
where mobile-friendly content is likely to reside.
dotMobi now counts approximately 1.1 million mobile site addresses
in the world, based on a scan of the largest Top Level Domains (TLDs)
in use. The TLDs that were scanned include such domains as .mobi, .com,
.net, .uk and .de. The 1.1 million number means that approximately 0.8
percent of all domains are likely to have mobile-friendly content.
As a comparison, the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) in 1998
counted a total of 1.46 million public, PC-based Web sites across all
TLDs. Today, VeriSign estimates there are approximately 77.4 million
live ".com" and ".net" Web sites. Given the strong growth of the mobile
Web in the past year and the rapidly evolving sophistication of mobile
technologies, a similar -- or even faster -- long-term deployment of
mobile content is likely compared to that of the PC-based Web a decade
ago.
Of the 1.1 million global "entry points" used by content creators,
the .mobi domain is the preferred entry point for sites that use a
single naming convention --- that's to say, sites that use only one
domain. (Some sites use multiple naming options for the same site.) The
".mobi" domain is used on 23 percent of these addresses.
"Site owners and consumers need a single naming convention to
resolve the market confusion in finding mobile content that works on
all phones, not just high-end smartphones or iPhones," said
dotMobi's Vice President of Mobile Marketing Evangelism. "The .mobi
domain is the only ICANN-approved domain name for identifying mobile
content, and the marketplace is responding by choosing .mobi as the
preferred way for identifying mobile content."
Other mobile content identifiers
The "/wap" identifier, which is used primarily by "legacy" sites
from the initial WAP era earlier this decade, represents 22 percent of
all mobile-friendly Internet addresses. Given that WAP is entering its
sunset phase as a technology, this 22% figure is likely to shrink in
the coming year.
Other mobile content identifiers include: "/m" (13 percent), "/wap."
(10 percent), "mobile." (5 percent), "m." (5 percent) and "/pda" (3
percent). Less frequently used are "pda.", "/forum", "/mobile" and
"/wireless".
Also popular is the use of device detection to automatically present
mobile content, as dotMobi's award-winning DeviceAtlas product
allows site owners to do. Device-aware sites currently represent 14
percent of all mobile-friendly sites.
"While the growth of mobile Web content on a global basis is not a
surprise, the speed at which it's growing is very happy news," said
CEO, dotMobi. "And the growing use of the only ICANN-approved
convention to identify that content -- the .mobi domain -- proves that
content owners are anxious to make sure their customers know that their
mobile sites will work on any phone, on any network, anywhere in the
world."