Thursday, January 13, 2011

Are Cellphone domains becoming Passé?

DomainReport.ca

Is the cellphone era coming to an end, to be replaced by the smartphone or webphone era?

I noticed a couple of cellphone domain sales reported this week, and the prices seemed low compared to their quality.  CellphoneCity.com for $4200 and CellphoneMarket.com for $2350.  To me these are high quality brandable domains and I think they might have had a higher valuation a few years ago, before the iphone and other smartphones starting coming out.

Most people I know who upgrade their phone package now are going for iphones or smartphones.  I think it will become standard for mobile phones to have internet connectivity and sharp screens for web surfing.  And I also notice that people aren't calling smartphones 'cellphones'.  They either just call it 'my phone' or 'my iphone'.  They don't call them cellphones anymore.

So is it still a good idea to hold cellphone domain names?  I don't think the cellphone market is dead, and maybe in some parts of the world simple phones like this are still in high use, but in developped countries I think the cellphone era is slowly being phased out, and in two or three years you will hardly hear the term at all.  Would you want to put a lot of time and resources right now into a website that had 'cellphone' in the domain name, and was linked to the future of the cellphone market?

I bet when Gordon Gekko got out of prison at the beginning of the last Wallstreet movie, and took possession of his clunky 80's cellphone, it went right in the trash and he got himself a new iphone.

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10 comments:

  1. Also there is a new brand of Superphones coming out.

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  2. So is PhoneBlog.com a good name to have?

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  3. I would say phoneblog.com is a great name.

    Probably better to have than cellphoneblog.com right now.

    With "Phone blog", it's short and you can use it for any kind of phone - landline phones, cellphones, smartphones, satphones, and even what the earlier poster said - superphones.

    Haven't heard of superphones before so I'll have to check them out.

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  4. What is your take on Waterproof Smartphones and Tablets.I bet that is in the near future.

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  5. Hi,

    We have CellPhoneDirect.Net is for sale!
    Any offer?

    Thanks,

    Ben

    BuyBestDomains.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Ben - cellphonedirect.net is the type of domain that might become less in demand because cellphones are phasing out to smartphones, and maybe superphones now. A few years ago I would have said it was a very decent domain for a cellphone shop or service. The point of my post is that new technology is passing cellphones by. People want a phone with a high res screen and internet connectivity now.

    @Kevin - a gadget being waterproof should just be standard in my opinion - I don't know how many people inquire about this when searching for a phone or tablet.

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  7. I was really shocked when I saw how low they both sold for, especially the market one.

    Much too cheap for such a great domain

    I don't think it means that the term cellphone is in decline at all...more like the seller sold a gem for peanuts IMO

    "I would say phoneblog.com is a great name"

    Definitely a great one to develop

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  8. The world doesn't need any more blogs about phones. We already had 10x too many back in '03.
    Cellphone was always a dumb name for the device anyway. Phone, mobile phone, wireless phone = all better names.

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  9. wireless phone sounds silly compared to cell phone

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  10. I was really never into cellphone domains 'til recently. I bought AndroidsMarket.com and iIpadCases.com

    I didn't really like the extra i in the ipad cases domain but i think it will be okay for my niche store

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