After years of too much hype, it's safe to say that the mobile internet is here. Sure, a lot of the activity is taking place in closed gardens (App Store, cough). But thanks to the wide availability of internet-enabled handsets, the rise of smartphones and 3G networks, more and more people are accessing websites through their mobiles.
Unfortunately, access and demand haven't yet produced the ideal mobile web experience. In fact, according to a recent study conducted by Gomez, Inc., in the past year two out of three mobile users have run into problems while trying to access websites on their mobiles.
Part of the problem is design. Over half of the users Gomez surveyed reported that websites they tried to access had content "too large or small for the size of their mobile phone's screen". That's not entirely surprising. While more companies are building mobile versions of their websites, it's certainly not common practice yet.
But design isn't the biggest problem for mobile users. Speed is. Of the users who had a complaint about their mobile internet experience, nearly 75% complained about slow load times. According to Matt Poepsel of Gomez, "While mobile users may accept sites that are ‘light’ on richness and small in form factor, they are evidently not willing to sacrifice performance".
This is a real challenge for businesses who want to reach the growing number of consumers who want access to information while on the go for a number of reasons. First, it's not always easy to design a mobile version of your website. Deciding what functionality is okay to cut out can be challenging, especially if your website contains a lot of it. Second, it's not just about your website. Even with 3G, the mobile internet is slow compared to the wired connections many people have become accustomed to at home and work. Throw in uncontrollable factors such as reception and network quality and it's impossible for businesses to guarantee great experiences, even if they do just about everything right.
This is one of the reasons why apps will likely continue to thrive. While reception and network quality still matter for apps that pull content and data from the internet, the fact that the interface and core functionality is built in to native software that runs on the phone removes some of the overhead that can impede performance with mobile websites.
That's something that businesses need to consider when deciding whether to build mobile websites or develop native apps for popular mobiles such as the iPhone.
Photo credit: Yandle via Flickr.
Patricio Robles is a tech reporter at Econsultancy. Follow him on Twitter.
Recommended reports
Mobile Statistics
The Mobile Statistics documents are part of Econsultancy's Internet Statistics Compendium package, a comprehensive compilation of internet statistics and online market research with data, facts, charts and figures that are ideal for presentations, business cases or client pitches, RFPs and understanding the marketplace as a whole.
Mobile Marketing Buyer's Guide
This buyer's guide is aimed at those who are investigating the market for mobile marketing, with profiles of 14 leading suppliers offering platforms and related services. The report provides details on the issues and trends affecting this sector, as well as information about best practice and tips for successful mobile marketing and advertising campaigns.
11:12AM on 21st October 2009
Great article and great timing for publishing it. We've just launched a CMS for smartphones, BluJam, and this backs up what our clients are telling us and what we're telling them.
Managing Director at User Vision
9:35AM on 22nd October 2009
Good article pointing out the dilemma facing many businesses - whether to create an app (or set of apps for the different platforms) or a mobile version of their site. The latter option is being made easier with tools like mobify me and the Mobi thinking Instant Mobilizer. its also probably a good thing they force the discipline of deciding what is the priority content & functionality that needs to be transferred to the mobile context of use. Apps are all the buzz but mobile sites have their place. In any case we find careful planning, user research and testing of the mobile app or mobile site is critical.
CEO at Mobile Flow
2:30AM on 24th October 2009
Even in these early days of mobile internet access creating sites that deliver a poor customer experience can be avoided.
The limitations of handsets, browsers and networks is well documented so it is incumbent upon mobile website developers and software authors who write applications that generate mobile web sites to take these limitations into account before launching sites.
Testing with the appropriate tools always helps. The mobiReady test facility for example, provides deep analysis of mobile web sites based on industry best practice and other detailed test metrics. Part of the output describes in detail how a site will perform on various handsets and across different networks. Where a site has a poor user experience, simply following the recommendations made in a mobiReady report will raise the performance and user experience.