Do we need .mobi domains?

The new .mobi domains open up for general sale on Tuesday after companies were given the opportunity to lock in their trademarks. The new domain names — marketed to be the .com of mobile accessed content — are backed by Microsoft, Nokia and Vodaphone. But just like .tv, do we really need .mobi? Verizon says it doesn’t see any “business need,” but the company registered verizon.mobi to make sure nobody else takes it. “What we would not want to happen is for this name to be an infringer’s paradise,” said Sarah Deutsch, associate general counsel for Verizon. “Most of the new domain names have been failures and the vast majority of valuable real estate still rests in .com.” I agree, and it’s frustrating that domain registration has become a defensive move. Plus, most .com sites are now optimized for mobile, so why push people to another domain name?