The surprising study results cite slow loading pages (38 percent) and browser problems, (27 percent) as the primary reasons people would rather browse for content on a full-screen PC rather than mobile phones. Additionally, Hostway found that 25 percent of websites could not be accessed through the mobile web browser.
“At the moment, most websites just aren’t flexible enough to be accessed on mobile phones,” Neil Barton of Hostway told The Register (U.K.). “There’s nothing wrong with having a Flash website with all the bells and whistles you can muster, but you’ve got to be aware that mobile users simply aren’t going to be able to access it. The research illustrates that even if people do wait for sites to load, quite often it’s impossible to actually get at the content itself because of the way that sites are built.”
The study also detailed the surfing habits of its respondents. Forty-nine percent said they would use the mobile web to access maps and driving directions, while 47 percent said they would access news and sports. The study concluded that people would prefer to use their PCs to find specific information on the net, while using their mobile phones for surfing.
If mobile browsing has slowed in Europe, how does that effect U.S. webmasters developing mobile sites?
“The findings of this study are exactly what we have been preaching to the U.S. webmasters,” Textbill CEO Sean O’Connor told XBIZ. “Forget browsing the net on your phone. Webmasters need to concentrate on promoting mobile value add-ons for their website. At the recent XBIZ Summer ’06 Forum, we were reinforcing to the U.S. webmasters that adding limited mobile extras for their current Internet users is the only way to develop mobile surfers.”
While mobile phone users are tentative to use mobile webbrowsers, the study suggests that with technical improvements, consumers would be more apt to use the technology. Nine in 10 respondents said they would use mobile Internet services if pages would load faster. Seventy-one percent said they would be most interested in accessing their e-mail on mobile if they could do it effectively — and cheaply.
