Archive notice: This article was originally published on October 13, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Technically advanced high-tech smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone may have revolutionised mobile internet use, but even these devices have not changed the fact that many users still have frustrating experiences when browsing the web on a phone. That is the sobering conclusion of a recent study by US market research institute Keynote Systems. According to the study, the frustration rate among users trying to access certain websites via the iPhone is still too high. News portals appear to be a particular problem. Around 60 and 33 percent of iPhone owners respectively said they were dissatisfied with the mobile versions of the Yahoo and Fox News websites. These results mean that the usability of many mobile websites still needs significant improvement, the researchers say.
“The iPhone is an incredibly innovative high-tech smartphone. But our study clearly shows that this innovation has not yet really translated into the web-browsing experience,” says Dan Richards, senior product manager at Keynote. The study focused on the Apple device because its concept is strongly geared towards internet use. In addition, iPhone owners are known to spend more time on the mobile web than other smartphone users. “There are still major areas that urgently need to be optimised for consumer use,” Richards stresses. Dissatisfaction among mobile web users is also a serious problem for the advertising industry, which is increasingly discovering the mobile phone as a medium. “Very few mobile internet users click on advertisements. The problem lies in the design of mobile websites,” Richards explains.
“Mobile internet use on phones is only now becoming genuinely interesting to users,” Björn Brodersen of the online mobile-tariff adviser Teltarif tells pressetext.de. However, the mobile communications expert does not believe dissatisfaction with mobile browsing among owners of new high-tech smartphones such as the iPhone is as widespread as suggested. “Phone technology has developed enormously. User conditions have improved significantly as a result,” says Brodersen. There are also a number of additional settings that allow phone owners to optimise the display of original websites for their mobile screens.
“It can be assumed that mobile internet will develop into a mass market within a few years. In my view, however, the sector’s future development will be decided more by price than by technical questions,” Brodersen notes. Numerous tariff models are already available, including usage-based billing and flat-rate offers, making web browsing on phones much cheaper and more flexible. “Before choosing a tariff, however, consumers should think carefully about how often and for what purposes they need the internet while on the move,” Brodersen concludes.
