I just received the following press release from Sedo regarding the recent .mobi auctions. It's an interesting read which suggests that there is a lot of interest in the .mobi extension, although I'm personally still unsure about it.

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DUBLIN, Ireland and WASHINGTON, DC - October 9, 2007 - dotMobi, the company behind the .mobi Internet domain, successfully closed its first-ever online auction on October 3. dotMobi auctioned 100 domain names through Sedo.com, and is the first domain company to offer selected names directly to the market via an online auction process rather than a traditional "first come, first served" process.

Dozens of names were purchased, and more than $850,000 generated for the continued creation of mobile content tools like dotMobi's popular http://ready.mobi/ and http://site.mobi/ tools.

With bidders from 34 countries, the auction's most desired names were hosting.mobi (sold for $101,000), bank.mobi ($51,501), download.mobi ($51,500), currency.mobi ($47,000) and insurance.mobi ($42,005).

insurance.mobi was purchased by Insurance.com, an independent, online insurance agency which enables consumers to instantly compare and buy competitive auto insurance quotes directly from more than a dozen leading insurance companies. "We see the long-term value of the mobile internet," said Joe Singleton, Director of Information Technology, Insurance.com. "The .mobi domain will be a valuable tool in continuing to build our future consumer offerings."

"With more than 1.6 billion mobile users around the world, it's obvious that brands are quickly realizing that the audience for mobile content is enormous," said David Ryder, dotMobi's Chief Marketing Officer. "This auction proves that dotMobi has some of the most-wanted domain names in the world, and it's exciting to start seeing how they'll be used for content."

Tim Schumacher, CEO of Sedo, said, "We knew that the dotMobi's premium names portfolio would be a success on the Sedo platform; however, the results of this auction went beyond our expectations. We are now even more excited about our upcoming .mobi auction on October 31 when names like car.mobi, gps.mobi, gay.mobi, kiss.mobi, love.mobi and map.mobi will be available."

The complete list of names for the October 31 Sedo auction, along with terms, condition and buyer requirements, are available at http://premiumauction.mobi/.

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