The new iPad and it's Language Support

With the launch of the affordable and easy to use iPad by Apple, there follow many questions about the company's ability to market to China and India.  Due to it's low price and portability, it seems like a great device for the entire world.  However, when looking at the language support we have some questions.  

The iPad language support is as follows:

• Language support for English, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Russian
• Keyboard support for English (U.S.) English (UK), French (France, Canada), German, Japanese (QWERTY), Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese (Handwriting and Pinyin), Russian
• Dictionary support for English (U.S.), English (UK), French, French (Canadian), French (Swiss), German, Japanese, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese (Handwriting and Pinyin), Russian

The first question that appears is why aren't the top languages in India supported?

Also, what about Traditional Chinese? and Korean?  What about Thai with over 40 million speakers.

It also seems that many European languages have not been included, like Portuguese (180 million speakers), Czech, Polish, etc.

With all the technology available these days, it seems like during the first release of the iPad, perhaps Apple is targeting it's first set of Consumers.    But in reality, by leaving out language support on the keyboard for some of the worlds largest languages may be a costly oversight.  For example, countries like Poland and Lithuania have many graphic designers and Mac users that would love a product like this if the keyboard supported their languages.  The same is true for Portugal and Brazil.   Also Taiwan is left out, and Taiwan has a strong consumer base.    Also, millions from India would love this product if keyboard support becomes available in Hindi (200 million speakers), Bengali (180 million speakers) etc.
That being said, we are hoping that the new iPad will add additional languages to it's keyboard functionality in the near future.   With the internet's content now being over 50 percent non-english, there is plenty of opportunity for Apple to compete and market this great product globally.

When will the first 'real' IDN cctld be added to the root?

It's January 2010 and pouring down rain in Southern California.  I've been pondering that the update of IDN cctld's to the root will be coming soon.  How soon?  Could be anytime between now and May 2010.   Tina Dam (in charge of IDNs with ICANN) says that it will be sometime early in 2010.   Well the purpose of this post is to have a contest:  Guess the exact day that the first IDN cctld will be added to the root and win a prize.  The winner will receive an IDN domain with a .com or .net extension.  We will probably be informed of the exact date that the first (non-test) IDN extension is added to the route by members of ICANN or IANA, and we here at IDNBusiness.com will also be checking.  We will check the IANA website during the next few months, but more than likely the news will be everywhere on domain forums and IDNforums.

Good Luck to all who enter!  Please post your entry in the comments below.

The domain name prize will be announced at a later date.

Taking a break from IDNs (impossible even in Mammoth)

During this holiday portion of the year I thought I would do a little work where the crowds flock to.  The specific work is reflexology in Mammoth Lakes, CA.  Tis the holiday season and boatloads of avid skiers have come to Mammoth to frolic in the snow and party with friends and family.  It's been interesting watching the white powder covered city grow in just the last few days.  Last week the buses were empty and now packed full with snowboarders and skiers, young and old.  As I wait for clients at the massage place called Simply Massage (MassageMammoth.com) I can look out the window and see the people coming and going with their equipment, snow or shine and even in this current economy, tradition is tradition, and many families just can't stand the idea of staying at home for the holidays and come up to Mammoth.   For me, a SoCal guy, the weather is quite extreme, going from Sunny and warm today, from last nights extreme chill factor.    The vacation/reflexology work has been stimulating to say the least, but one thing that is impossible to leave behind is my work with IDNs.  So, after doing some reflexology sessions and going out for lunch or dinner, there is always time to do some mining for IDNs.  I have a list of IDNs to reg, but am holding off for a little while, to see if the selected niche starts to grow.   I'm interested in hearing what you all are doing for the holidays, so post comments if you like.  Happy Holidays!

It's getting harder to value (put a price on) IDNs into 2010..

Well with some recent sales of IDNs, it is becoming clear that to actually set values on them is almost impossible.  The German market gives us a glimpse into prices and sales, but the German IDN market has been very active during the past 2 years.   Some of the early IDN investors have quite an amazing collection of IDNs and many of them are priceless.    And which language will be the next to 'pop'?  Many think Russian IDNs are already popping and enjoying a great deal of type-in traffic, and it makes sense.  Although a couple of fairly wealthy individuals may make a start with Arabic.    One thing we are certain of is that the value of IDNs will rise during the next 5 years, and may level out around 2015.   Until then, we are likely to see many, many 6 figure sales, and by next year, a huge percentage of DNJournals reported sales will be IDNs.  How soon? How high?  How fast?  Anyones guess right now.  So hold on tight.

IDNBlog gets Exclusive: Q&A with Chuck Gomes of Verisign

The website IDNBlog asked questions to Chuck Gomes of Verisign today and he answered one of the questions many of us have been curious about.  How will the aliasing process work?  You can read his answer here on IDNBlog.   Basically,  IDN.com and IDN.net holders will have the rights to IDN.com-in-IDN and IDN.net-in-IDN exclusively.  If the IDN.com holder wants to "turn-on"  the .com-in-IDN or .net-in-IDN domain, he/she will need to purchase the .in-IDN version in order to 'activate' the domain.  Otherwise the '.in-IDN' versions will not resolve.  I think this is a great solution and the mechanism will be in place (added to the root) during the launch of the new gtlds by ICANN.  For those who have invested in and are developing IDNs this process insures stability and makes the .com and .net brands available in the hundreds of languages being spoken throughout the world.

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Countdown to the Public Introduction of IDN .РФ