Now that dot-mobi domain names are available to attract wireless device usage, should you duplicate your company’s domain names with this new suffix?

The answer is part crystal ball technology think (not our bailiwick), part marketing think (not our bailiwick), and part financial think (our bailiwick). Just about every business decision passes through your financial statements, so here’s what this seemingly minor expense triggers from our CFO perspective:

• Risk management – you can insure yourself out of business, spending big bucks to mitigate against any number of problems. In this case the risk is that your prized domain name gets snapped up in dot-mobi format. Insurers are masters at heightening our sense of fear then providing a simple solution that “only costs $2.99 per day, which is nothing compared to what you stand to lose.” So is it worth another $100 or $200 to lock up your dot-mobi? Understand, I’m not knocking the risk management profession – it’s a critical part of running a sustainable business. See recent post about insurance on this topic.
• Expense creep – this is where you wake up one day and wonder how your little company became bloated with overhead. Every little bit hurts.
• Budget – your best defense against expense creep. This expenditure would go under Business Development or Sales & Marketing or Technology depending on how you characterize website expenses. Is it in the budget?

CNET news story on the topic: Dot mobi domain for mobile devices hits the Web