blog.mobi

DeviceAtlas 3.2 released

January 5th, 2012

dotMobi is happy to announce that we’ve just released version 3.2 of DeviceAtlas. This version introduces many new Web-focused properties that let developers fully harness the power of mobile devices with both DeviceAtlas Enterprise and DeviceAtlas Cloud.

We’ve also extended the property set of DeviceAtlas Cloud Premium to include all of the multimedia properties, making the property set at par with DeviceAtlas Enterprise.

The major focus for these new properties is HTML5, which allows advanced Web apps to be completely optimized and provide a faster, richer experience for end users. Having these properties on the server side means fewer requests for the client and less content that has to be sent. It’s a win-win on both sides!

We’ve also introduced a number of standard JavaScript properties that nicely complement the HTML5 set. Many devices, especially non-smart phones, have inconsistent support for JavaScript. These properties take the guesswork out and allow appropriate content to be sent to all users.

The other new property of note is Display PPI. This returns the pixel density for a device’s screen and can be used with the resolution properties to produce images that look sharp on any screen. Many new devices are being introduced with high-resolution “retina” displays, so it is becoming increasingly important to take pixel density into account when resizing images for devices.

This release also brings a new mobile site, built using the award-winning goMobi platform and full access to the Data Explorer for all registered users.

All of the new properties can be found listed on the property pages in our Resource Center.

If you have any questions or comments, please send them to da.tech@mtld.mobi.

Tags: apps, device database, device detection, DeviceAtlas, dotMobi, HTML5, mobile web
Posted by Martin Clancy in device detection, DeviceAtlas, goMobi, Mobile Web | No Comments »

Happy fifth anniversary to .mobi!

September 27th, 2011

Members of the .mobi team on September 26, 2006

Five years ago — on September 26, 2006 — the .mobi domain opened its doors for registrations. Only five years ago but, back then, no iPhone. No Android. The Motorola Razr was still cool (if lower-end). My state-of-the-art mobile device was a Wi-Fi-enabled Palm device (without a phone). Conversations at mobile events often centered around Blackberries and what interesting things they could do.

Today, I know one person who still uses a Razr. Palm … thought about them lately, outside of the “What’s up with HP” discussions? Blackberry. We’ve all watched that stock drop; some of us are hoping they find a new niche rather than circle the dead pool. And who even saw an iPad on the horizon?

But, despite all those radical changes on the mobile front, .mobi as a domain has continued to grow. There are now more than one million active registrations and .mobi is the sixth largest generic Top-Level Domain in the world (.com, .net..org. .info and .biz come before it.) There are now two-character domains like nv.mobi and 53.mobi. There are now .mobi sites covering the world, in every vertical. (And in South Africa, “.mobi” is synonymous with “mobile website,” e.g., “Our product needs a .mobi built before we launch.”)

And mobile content is no longer an after-thought. Read what Google said just last week in regards to mobile-ready content and the Google advertising platform, “We will be introducing the mobile optimization of a website as a new factor of ads quality for AdWords campaigns that are driving mobile search traffic. As a result of this change, ads that have mobile optimized landing pages will perform better in AdWords — they will generally drive more mobile traffic at a lower cost.” [Italics mine.]

The .mobi domain was created to help make the mobile Web a viable endeavor. And we can all say the mobile Web, since then, is in everyday use. Did the .mobi domain alone do that? The iPhone certainly helped. But so did dozens of other convergent technologies and services. And it’s part of the reason the dotMobi company’s other products — primarily the goMobi site creator and DeviceAtlas mobile device database — have been successful. Our mobiForge cross-platform developer forum now has more than 50,000 active members, and our mobiThinking forum continues to be a sourcebook of choice for marketers globally.

In the photo above, one-third of us who were there then are here now. That’s a long time for anyone in the world of technology. And that’s a tribute to the belief we have in the .mobi domain, the dotMobi company, and the mobile Web.

So happy birthday, .mobi! It’s been five exciting years; I can’t wait to see what the next five hold!

Tags: .mobi, Android, anniversary, Blackberry, dotMobi, iPhone
Posted by Vance P. Hedderel in Advertising, Content, DeviceAtlas, dotMobi, goMobi, mobiForge, Mobile Web, mobiThinking | 2 Comments »

Hats off to Paddy Power

August 30th, 2011

We were delighted to see DeviceAtlas customer Paddy Power leading the way on mobile by racking up impressive results in their first half financials announced today. Figures showed a substantial growth in pretax profits, which were up by 15% with mobile a key component to this increase.

Some 81% of Paddy Power earnings are generated online and mobile has been a strong driver of growth. Active customers on paddypower.com were up by 48%. Paddy Power was early to the market with mobile and has continued to improve their offerings in both the gaming and gambling markets.

Paddy Power use DeviceAtlas to detect mobile devices visiting their site to ensure they are making their services available to customers on an “anytime, anywhere” basis.

Given the fast paced nature of the gambling industry and the variety of mobile handsets available Paddy Power needs to be able to provide a Web site that delivers the best possible user experience to the widest variety of mobile phones.

Tags: DeviceAtlas, Mobile Strategy, Paddy Power
Posted by Martin Clancy in Business, device detection, DeviceAtlas, dotMobi, Mobile Web | No Comments »

HostingCon 2011

August 24th, 2011

Now the dust has settled on HostingCon 2011, and the team has recovered from the jetlag a quick post on how it all went. Lots of interest in goMobi both on stand and at the sessions and our unofficial HostingCon mobile site http://hc2011.mobi was a big hit with the attendees covering all the news parties, schedule and more. Some photos here.

People are telling us they need a solution that brings the latest technology developments together in a mobile web solution that is cost effective and easy to use. The new mobile marketing features of the latest goMobi release like QR codes and social media integration are resonating strongly with an increasingly mobile savvy market. The agenda has moved on from “what to do with mobile” to “what can mobile do for me and my business”.

We were of course delighted to announce our partnership with Parallels to make goMobi available as an APS package. So now the 10,000-plus Web services providers and resellers who use the Parallels platform can offer goMobi to their customers. Lots of positive pickup in the Twittersphere, thanks all for picking up the story on Twitter.

Now just as we’re back in the office with our feet under the desk, it’s time to start preparing for our next event. See you at Adtech London 2011 where we are Official Mobile Partner. Check out http://adtechuk.mobi on your phone.

Tags: APS, Events, goMobi, HostingCon, mobile web, Parallels, site builder, Twitter
Posted by Martin Clancy in Content, dotMobi, Events, goMobi, Mobile Web | No Comments »

The proof is in the Parallels platform

August 4th, 2011

Today, dotMobi announced the latest “good news” story on goMobi, our award-winning mobile site building and content maintenance platform: dotMobi has taken advantage of the Application Packaging Standard (APS) to make goMobi available to the 10,000-plus Web services providers and resellers who use the Parallels platform.

Just as the .mobi domain has continued to grow as the standard for naming content — more than one million domains registered and growing — goMobi is fast emerging as the standard tool for mobile content creation and maintenance. Finding new ways to make goMobi available is always part of the internal discussions we have at dotMobi, and we’re very excited to bring goMobi to Parallels.

For those of you who are not familiar with it or only know its PC-emulation software for the Macintosh, Parallels is a worldwide leader in software that is used by companies who offer a full range of Web services (like hosting) to their customers. With the APS packaging that dotMobi has done, Web services companies can easily and quickly add goMobi into their product mix– think “plug and play.” This means that their customers can go mobile and give themselves an opportunity to consider using .mobi to identify that mobile content.

As we previously mentioned a few weeks back, goMobi recently graduated to version 1.4 with integration with Facebook, Twitter, and foursquare (among others); QR codes and easy-to-design flyers; custom analytics and a hosted image gallery. So, with growing interest in the mobile Web — and tools like these at your disposal — there’s no better time than now to “goMobi.”

By the way, if you’re planning to attend HostingCon 2011 next week, be sure to bookmark our goMobi “buzz” site for event visitors at http://hc2011.mobi, so you can see goMobi in action. And please come visit us at booth #226.

Tags: Apple, APS, dotMobi, Facebook, foursquare, goMobi, HostingCon, Macintosh, Parallels, Twitter
Posted by Vance P. Hedderel in Content, dotMobi, Events, goMobi, Mobile Web, Software | No Comments »

Lately, it’s all about the numbers …

July 12th, 2011

As the headline says, it’s all about the numbers: specifically 3.0 and 1.4. Last week, we released version 3.0 of DeviceAtlas and — this past weekend — we released version 1.4 of goMobi. DeviceAtlas v3.0 takes the award-winning device detection database to the “cloud” so that smaller designers, development shops and agencies now have access to state-of-the-art device detection. But what about goMobi 1.4, what’s new with it? Well …

You can now harness the power of social networks by integrating your goMobi site with sites like Facebook, Twitter, and foursquare.
You can implement QR codes and print easy-to-design flyers to connect mobile and print marketing campaigns.
You can access a custom analytics tool for traffic analysis, profiling and data gathering.
You can upload photos through a hosted image gallery and customize your site with more icons and colors than ever before.

You may notice these new goMobi features have a common theme: building customer relationships by giving you additional ways to market your mobile site. After all, what good is spending the energy to build a cool mobile site if no one knows about it?

And while we were at it, we spent some time updating the goMobi website. Now, we have case studies, testimonials and example sites so you can get a better overview of why goMobi is the best choice, and how to use your site to drive customer loyalty and sales.

Tags: device detection, DeviceAtlas, goMobi, mobile web
Posted by Vance P. Hedderel in device detection, DeviceAtlas, dotMobi, goMobi, Mobile Web | No Comments »

Good news! goMobi nominated as “Best Technology Innovation” 2011

June 4th, 2011

On June 2, the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) announced the shortlists for its 2011 “Meffy” awards — and we were excited to see dotMobi on the “Best Technical Innovation” list for goMobi.

Rimma Perelmuter, the MEF’s Executive Director, noted, “This year’s shortlist demonstrates the rise in mobile content and commerce services that not only entertain but also enable deeper consumer engagement and monetization directly via the mobile connected device.”

Since goMobi is designed to help businesses of all sorts engage with their current and potential customers and grow their commerce via mobile, it looks like dotMobi fits right in.

For this award, dotMobi is competing with some interesting companies, each one approaching mobile technology in a very different way:

ForgetMeNot Africa for eTXT Facebook from Econet Wireless Zimbabwe
MTS for Omlet.ru
OnStar for their Mobile App
Qualcomm for their Augmented Reality SDK Platform
Syniverse for their Mobile Video Broadcast Service

The winners will be announced on the evening of July 7, and we hope to share even better news with you after that night.

Tags: dotMobi, goMobi, innovation, MEF, mobile, tech
Posted by Vance P. Hedderel in dotMobi, goMobi, Software | No Comments »

RCR Wireless News: Video Interview with Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi

May 27th, 2011

Earlier this week, RCR Wireless News made a visit to Dublin and interviewed several Irish tech companies, including dotMobi. The following clip features dotMobi’s CEO, Trey Harvin, discussing the .mobi domain, DeviceAtlas and goMobi:

This next clip is a close-up of how goMobi works, using the award-winning snowboards.mobi site, built on the goMobi platform:

Tags: .mobi, DeviceAtlas, domain, goMobi, interview, video
Posted by Vance P. Hedderel in Content, dotMobi, goMobi, In the News, Mobile Web | No Comments »

NIC.LV and dotMobi: making Latvia mobile

May 6th, 2011

At a recent event held in the beautiful Latvian capital of Riga, we announced a joint project between the Latvian ccTLD Registry NIC.LV and dotMobi to promote awareness about the mobile Web in Latvia.

As part of this project, NIC.LV now gives all .LV registrants the option to activate a “.LV.mobi” extension corresponding to their .LV domain at no extra charge, so that they can use it to identify and more easily promote their mobile website.

The center of Riga

One of the key benefits of using a ccTLD domain like .LV is that it is an easy and intuitive way of providing a strong local context to the site visitors. That local context is even more relevant as Internet users become increasingly mobile, and start using their mobile phones to look for information about businesses and services around them. Adding a .mobi at the end of the ccTLD domain is the best way to build on that local context: it emphasizes that a site is both locally relevant and mobile friendly at the same time. Now, .LV domain holders can focus on promoting their online identity around their .LV domain, while enjoying the benefit of being more easily and reliably findable on mobile.

It is the first time that two TLD registries come together in such a way. We are very pleased to be working with NIC.LV on this project, as they are known for their commitment to providing innovative services and going the extra mile for the benefit of their local community.

Also, working with NIC.LV allows dotMobi’s message on the growing importance of the mobile Web to reach the Latvian market more effectively, and we are convinced that this will prove a winning combination… and an example that we can export to many other countries in the future.

To help .LV registrants exploit this opportunity and support the development of the mobile Web in Latvia, we’ve also launched the goMobi.lv site with our partner SIA Amberbit. The site gives all .LV registrants who do not have a custom-developed mobile site to use their .LV.mobi domain with goMobi to build a strong, effective mobile presence for their business.