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The promise of dotMobi, introduced back in May, is to deliver better more streamlined Internet content to mobile devices through optimization. Now that a Sunrise Registration period for owners of intellectual property is over, the mobile Top Level Domain Ltd (mTLD) in charge of registration for the new domain name has opened up its doors to the general public.

13,000 trademark companies joined during the Sunrise period. It is said that 25,000 were originally expected.

mTLD anticipates signing up over 200,000 dotMobi sites within its first year. Yesterday began what is being labeled the Land Rush period, a (well) rush of over 75,000 registrants registered .mobi domains. During this time, applicants will pay more than when the Standard General Registration starts on October 11th. In general, a .mobi address should go for about $25 for a two-years.

.mobi is supposed to signify a site has been formatted for cell phones and other mobile devices. To ensure constancy and make its goal of a more mobile Web a reality, dotMobi has established best practices, style sheets, standards and tools. The dotMobi Switch On! Guide for Web Development contains rules and is based on open standard to ensures that sites can be viewed and navigated by any wireless devices.

"In the past, using the Internet on a mobile device presented huge obstacles for the consumer," said Neil Edwards, CEO of dotMobi. "We're creating a link between mobile operators, Internet content providers and the millions of mobile users seeking a consistent, reliable and enjoyable Internet experience."

Pushed by the likes of Microsoft, Nokia, Vodafone and Samsung Electronics, .mobi won approval from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in July 2005. Nokia first proposed a domain extension for mobile devices back in 2000, but ICANN rejected it because of the lack of technical details in the application. Nokia persevered, however, garnering industry support, before re-submitting it as .mobi in March 2004.

.mobi has met with some criticism, including from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the group's director and Web inventor. They would prefer a system where a single site (.com) is built and optimized pages for mobile devices are sent only when a cell phone, for example, accesses that site. Whereas .mobi works by creating two Internets in their opinion: one for mobile devices (.mobi) and one for desktops (.com).