I simply see no reason why the prices for .com should be increased other than to fill the pockets of Verisign and in the end of Verisign stockholders at the expense of millions of .com registrants. What are the registrants’ benefits? There is none. If the com-registry was auctioned off I am sure it could be run at even lower prices. Price increases and complexity (e.g. new gTLDs) surely does not help the domains competition with social media and other technological developments.

Michael