Dot Asia (.asia) is going to be a new domain extension next year. It is official, you can see it at this ICANN page. I mailed them about more details cause it is hard to find on the web. I got a very short reply back (I didn’t expect anything else). The registration for trademark and service marks will begin in October 2007.
In the period for trademark and service marks registration I hope the generics will not be snapped away. names as laptops.asia are very generic and nobody has a trademark or service mark on it. But you never know, it happened with the launch of .eu, so it can happen again.
Dot Asia looks like a very good domain extension, but I think it is not that good cause all countries in Asia already have its own extension. But who knows, I think we can compare this extension with .eu, all EU countries also had its own extensions before the .eu launch, but was still very successful.
I am sure going to watch this process and trying to pick up some really generic names. domains as poker.asia or loans.asio will sure fetch a lot of money.