• New Study of smartphone and tablet users sheds light on expectations, preferences and pet peeves of the mobile experience; Expectations have tightened considerably in terms of download performance
• Findings show there is much work to be done to provide a satisfying mobile Web experience; huge implications for website owners
• Nearly 50 percent of study respondents expect a website to load in less than two seconds, 6 of 10 respondents anticipate a sub-three second website download on tablets -- Not far behind, two-thirds respondents expect a mobile site to load in less than 4 seconds on smartphones

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 6, 2012-- Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote^® Systems (NASDAQ: KEYN), today shared results of its nationwide mobile user survey, revealing important insights on how and why consumers leverage their smartphones and tablet devices. Keynote Competitive Research conducted this online study in a 2012 study of more than 5,000 U.S. adults (methodology included below). Research was conducted with Keynote WebEffective, an online research tool for website user experience testing that captures customers’ complete online experience, from desktops, smartphones and tablets. Overall, the survey showed that while expectations vary somewhat depending on the platform – desktop, smartphone or tablet – they are definitely increasing. In short, user expectations no matter the device are for very fast performance. Many sites, especially on smartphones and tablets, continue to be slow and disappoint consumers on a regular basis. Bottom line: Keynote’s research shows that the ‘expectation gap’ for performance has tightened considerably across platforms, and vendors ignore these increased expectations for blazing fast performance at their own peril.

The Keynote Survey Reveals:

Mobile Web Frustrations

• When asked about frustrating mobile Web experiences over the past two months, two-thirds of smartphone users cited “Web pages slow to load.” The next largest pain point felt by nearly half of the panel was “Website not optimized for smartphone.”

Smartphone Vs. Tablet vs. PC Expectations

• 60 percent of tablet users expect to wait less than three seconds to get to a website, while 48 percent of PC Web users want download speeds faster than two seconds.
• Smartphone user expectations are also high, with 64 percent wanting a website to load within four seconds and 82 percent of respondents wanting a mobile website to load within five seconds. When expectations are compared to reality, as viewed on Keynote performance indices, it’s easy to see why slow load times are concerning.
• Brands should beware: 16 percent of mobile users will not return or wait for your website to load if it takes too long and six percent will go to a competitor’s website.

Smartphone Vs. Tablet Habits

• 29 percent of respondents spend at least 1-2 hours browsing the Internet from their smartphone , with 37% of tablet users logging that time as well.
• The top five activities on smartphones include accessing local information such as maps and event locations (88 percent), searching for general information, (82 percent), participating in social media or social networking sites (76 percent), reading news and entertainment (75 percent) and finding local services, like ATMs or stores (74 percent).
• Tablet use painted a somewhat different profile. News and Entertainment are accessed most (79 percent) and searching for information (77 percent), watching videos (76 percent), accessing location information (75 percent) and participating in social networks (75 percent) round out the top five activities on tablet devices. While tablet users were no more likely to do banking when compared to a smartphone (50 percent v. 56 percent), they were much more likely to purchase something (62 percent v. 47 percent) or book travel (41 percent v. 29 percent).

“This survey reveals that a majority of mobile users are choosing to consume on-the-go information through their mobile browsers, while personal tasks like email and banking are often accessed through mobile apps whether on smartphones or on tablets,” said Don Aoki, senior vice president of professional services at Keynote. “Mobile consumers have options on how they can access and consume their digital content. For brands, it’s critical to integrate and develop mobile strategies that are viable across multiple types of mobile devices, and to evaluate the experience of smartphone and tablet users through online research tools like Keynote WebEffective.”

To view the entire results of the Mobile User Survey, visit the Keynote website at http://bit.ly/Keynote2012MobileStudy.

Methodology

Keynote Competitive Research surveyed a panel of 5,388 panelists on a ten minute, 25-50 question survey on device ownership and usage preferences in mobile. Of the respondents, 3,145 were smartphone users and 1,976 were tablet users. The survey was conducted in the first half of 2012.

About Keynote Systems

Keynote® Systems, Inc., (NASDAQ:KEYN) is the global leader in Internet and mobile cloud testing & monitoring. Keynote maintains the world’s largest on-demand performance monitoring and testing infrastructure for Web and mobile sites comprised of over 7,000 measurement computers and mobile devices in over 275 locations around the world that enable companies to continuously improve the online and mobile experience. Known as ‘The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority™,’ Keynote offers three market-leading product platforms:

Keynote Perspective® provides on-demand performance monitoring for enterprise Web and mobile sites including online portals, e-commerce sites and B2B sites. Over 2,000 customers rely on Keynote Perspective services to know precisely how their websites, content, and applications perform on actual browsers, networks, and mobile devices.

Keynote DeviceAnywhere® is an enterprise-class, cloud-based, mobile application lifecycle management (ALM) testing & quality assurance platform. It is used by over 1,000 mobile developers and enterprises to deliver mobile applications, content and services faster while reducing downtime and testing costs.

Keynote SIGOS® offers active end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) testing and monitoring solutions for mobile, fixed and VoIP communications. Its SITE and Global Roamer products are used by over 200 network operators, content providers, carriers and regulators in over 100 countries worldwide.

Keynote's 4,000 customers represent top Internet and mobile companies and include American Express, AT&T, Disney, eBay, E*TRADE, Expedia, Google, Microsoft, SonyEricsson, T-Mobile and Vodafone. Keynote Systems is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at http://www.keynote.com/ or by phone in the U.S. at 1-800-KEYNOTE.

Keynote®, DataPulse®, CustomerScope®, Keynote CE Rankings®, Keynote Customer Experience Rankings®, Perspective®, Keynote Red Alert®, Keynote Traffic Perspective®, Keynote WebEffective®, The Internet Performance Authority®, MyKeynote® , SIGOS®, SITE®, The Mobile & Internet Performance Authority™ and Keynote FlexUse™ are trademarks or registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2012 Keynote Systems, Inc.

Source: Keynote Systems, Inc.

Keynote Systems, Inc.
Ronjini Mukhopadhyay, 949-295-9779
Ronjini.Mukhopadhyay@Keynote.com