dotMobi Buys Mowser From Guy Who Doesn’t Believe in Mobile Web
Friday, May 9th, 2008
Registry for .mobi buys big-screen-to-mobile technology.
.mobi registry dotMobi has purchased the intellectual property of Mowser, a defunct startup. Mowser essentially converts regular web pages into mobile friendly web pages.
James Pearce, dotMobi Vice President of Technology, said, “When Mowser’s founders decided to make the assets available, dotMobi was first in line to acquire them. The work Russell and Mike put into making Mowser a ‘best of breed’ product is well-known throughout the industry. Being able to add that technology into dotMobi’s product line is exciting because it will exponentially stimulate mobile content growth.”
If only Mowser’s founder was so gung ho about the mobile web. When shutting down the company, he wrote:
I don’t actually believe in the “Mobile Web” anymore, and therefore am less inclined to spend time and effort in a market I think is limited at best, and dying at worst. I’m talking specifically about sites that are geared 100% towards mobile phones and have little to no PC web presence. Two years ago I was convinced that the mobile web would continue to evolve in the West to mimic what was happening in countries like Japan and Korea, but it hasn’t happened, and now I’m sure it isn’t going to.
Will do about as much good as putting lipstick on a pig…or adding fertilizer to a dead tree.
Mr. Pearce is psychotically optimistic about .MOBI.Still I hope/pray he’s right if for no other reason than I’m loaded with .MOBI extensions.They’re just sitting there taking up space and laughing at me.
This is a smart move in my opinion, Mowser is a great product and it needed to find the right home. dotMobi registry is a natural fit and this will help more developers make outside content more available for their mobile sites.
Opportunism at it’s best….
Good Move….
…and to be fair, the Mowser guy was certainly down on his luck when he said the mobile web is dead.
Great post
Two years ago I was convinced that the mobile web would continue to evolve in the West to mimic what was happening in countries like Japan and Korea, but it hasn’t happened, and now I’m sure it isn’t going to. – What a NEGATIVE perception – talk about WMD’s in the person’s head
The day that Google.com advertises that they are now Google.mobi is the day We will believe in .mobi. The standard has been set and it is .com. We are not saying .mobi is worthless but We are saying that .mobi is not in the same class as .com. We cannot be convinced otherwise.