As far as mobile Web shopping may have come in recent years, it’s still not quite in a position to threaten wired online shopping. A recent study by the Keynote Systems group indicates that wireless shopping levels during the past holiday season were less than spectacular.
“Shopping on mobile websites still has a lot of catching up to do in both download performance and uptime when compared to the performance of connected Web sites,” said Keynote senior manager of Internet technologies Ben Rushlo.
During the time frame ranging from late November to early January, the study analyzed the performance of retail mobile Web sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, Costco, Sears, Target, Wal-Mart and others. Download performance was measured using AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile data connections.
What was found indicates plainly that Mobile retail technology is not yet where it needs to be to adequately meet consumer expectations. For example, there are much higher error rates with mobile websites than non-mobile. The availability of sites is also greatly reduced—sometimes as low as 75 percent. Load times are much longer as well—eight seconds in the very best cases, and more than half a minute in the worst.
For more information on the study, go to the official web page.