This post was published 2 months 24 days ago. This info might have changed or might have become outdated.

No, it’s not the Jeopardy answer for “A Great Mobile website run by Chris Leckness”, it’s that and much more. Seriously though, I thought it would be great to tell new readers where Mobilitysite came from. I was digging through some old images and layouts recently as I was doing some housekeeping on my data drives and it was bringing back some serious memories. I really love where we’ve been and where we are going. So without delay, here we go. Warning, this might be longer than the attention span of many, but it should be a good read for those that don’t know all this already. I figure that 25% of our readers are new to Mobilitysite and have no idea where we came from, I think that 50% of our readers are Aximsite holdovers, 20% are search engine readers, and the other 5% are me and my mom.

From about 1996-1998, I messed around with Web Design as a hobby. I toyed around with a few sites mostly for fun. I created Lecktronix.com and Planetfreebie.com and really just messed around. Lecktronix is still online in almost the same form I left it in back in 1999. I also repurchased Planetfreebie because of it’s sentimental value to me too. Anyhow, I was doing some online handicapping for football when I decided to go back to college at night. I quit working on the handicapping site and went to work on a Business Administration degree. (which I am 1 class away from still, 7 years later)

When I decided to get back to school, I figured I needed something a little more powerful than my Palm PDA, so I went out and bought a Casio BE-300. I returned it 2 days later, I wasn’t impressed. This was about the time the Dell Axim X5 was launched. It was December 2002 when I ordered my Dell Axim X5. I don’t know how many remember this launch, but it was horrible. The device was priced so well, that Dell was overloaded with demand for the X5. People were having to wait weeks to get theirs. It’s upset a lot, but those that stuck with it were happy with their low priced, powerhouse. During the wait, I decided to create a website to share my experiences with the Dell Axim… Enter Aximsite.com. Aximsite blew up. In the 1st month online, we got 10k forum members and grew so fast that I almost couldn’t afford to pay to keep it online. If not for some advertisers stepping up, I would have had to shut down.

In the Summer of 2003, Pocket PC 2003 came out. Dell offered an upgrade for the X5, but HP came out with the iPAQ 2215. The 2215 was an HP replica of the Axim basically. HP took what Dell did right and made a stellar device with the 2215. The biggest thing with the 2215 was that it came with PPC 2003 already installed and running good. The Dell Axim X5 PPC 2003 upgrade was a debacle. Many that had switched to Dell returned to HP. Some that started with Dell, moved to HP. Many stuck with Dell too. The point is, Aximsite had become one of the most active PPC Forums online by then. I had many requests to create an iPAQ sister site to Aximsite after this 2003 debacle. I was dedicated to Aximsite and didn’t have the time to branch out though. Fast forward a few months though… I got my hands on the iPAQ 5550, the flagship of the iPAQ line at that time and loved it. I still loved my Axim, but it was nice enough to give in and create an iPAQ site too.

I spent a couple weeks checking out the iPAQ web scene. At the time that I did this research, PPC Thoughts and Brighthand were the only really active forums talking about iPAQ. They were general PPC in nature though. There was a new iPAQ website out too, but mainly there were only 2 other iPAQ focused websites and both were pretty inactive so I went ahead with iPaqHQ. It went over pretty well. Because the happening iPAQ chat was happening all over the other sites (PPCT, Brighthand, etc), I didn’t have the exclusive focus that Aximsite had, but it was pretty active anyhow.

For the next couple years, I ran both of these sites independently.

During this time, I also branched out some with DellDJsite.com and PSPsite.com… DellDJSite was turned into DAPsite.com and now is Gotzune.com. PSPsite was merged into iPaqHQ. I also started Mobilitysite.com during this time. This was a blogger.com blog that IK kept up with Engadget style news on.

Around 2006 sometime after CES, I merged iPaqHQ and Mobilitysite together and for another year or so, I ran Mobilitysite and Aximsite independently but I had merged the forums together.

Finally in 2008, I pulled the plug on Aximsite and forwarded it to Mobilitysite.

This is where Mobilitysite is today.

Now you can understand a little why we have a strong Windows Mobile bias and many of our readers are also Windows Mobile supporters.

During the last 8 years, leading up to what Mobilitysite is today, I have had a blast. In no particular order, here are some of the site’s and my own accomplishments:

• Aximsite was “the” place to talk Dell Axim for the longest.
• Aximsite peaked in 2005 with a ~3000 Alexa rating. If you know Alexa, you know that 3k is hot.
• I was invited to Mobius, a very big honor for us in the industry. I came in on the front end of the smartphone craze, but I was still focused on PPC at that time.
• I have been award the Microsoft MVP award for 6 years. 5 years as Windows Mobile and 1 year as Zune. I asked to go back to WinMo from Zune.
• I have met so many lifelong friends in the industry though all this. This is something I will cherish forever.
• I was interviewed in a book for the DellDJ.
• Aximsite was mentioned in a book for the Dell Axim.

There are tons of other things that I cherish about my experiences in this game. There are some things I’d like to forget too, but I have let most of that go. On 9/11/09, I am trying to only look at the positive things in life moving forward. I feel my choice to do that in the past has made me a better person and helped to make my sites a better place as well. Negativity is counterproductive. Anyhow, this is about what Mobilitysite is, so let’s focus on that.

Mobilitysite is me, Mobilitysite is you. The site would be nothing without Dell releasing the Dell Axim. Mobilitysite would be nothing without Aximsite. Aximsite would have been nothing without you and all the sites would be nothing without all the great help I have had over the years. Most of the Moderators in our forums have been with me for 99% of the life of the site. I am truly thankful for all those guys/gals and all that have been with me for shorter periods of time.

This is Mobilitysite. I have very little aspiration to make the site much more than what you see today. I always try to keep it modern, clean, and informative. We’ve strayed some before, but I keep returning to the roots that made Aximsite so popular. Thanks again to all the fans of the site past, present, and future.

In closing, let me go back to 9/11 and retweet something from Kevin C Tofel…

I don’t care what your beliefs are. It’s 9/11 *everywhere* today. Do something nice for someone. It’s time to make the world a better place.