'Indian consumers are unhappy with mobile web'

BANGALORE, INDIA: A significant portion of India’s mobile consumers’ expectations are not being met as the result of poor mobile and application performance, according to a survey by Compuware Corporation.

The survey titled 'What Users in India Want from Mobile' also said that mobile users expect quick, anytime transactions that work flawlessly every time, but as the survey findings illustrate, that’s not what they’re experiencing.

“User expectations for mobile continue to increase, but companies in India are not meeting mobile users’ need for fast and reliable experiences. As a result, many companies are failing to take advantage of the opportunities being provided by increased mobile access,” said Neeraj Dotel, managing director, Compuware India.

Today’s mobile users in India demand exceptional web experiences and highly satisfying, convenient, on-the-go mobile site speeds regardless of their mode of access.

To understand consumers’ mobile web and application expectations and experiences, Compuware commissioned an independent survey which queried 4,014 global users, including 500 users in India.

The study also finds that global mobile users’ expectations are not being met, as a majority of users experienced slow or unreliable mobile and application performance.

Key survey findings include:

Mobile users’ expectations for mobile websites are high with 84 per cent of mobile web users in India expect websites to load as quickly, almost as quickly or faster on their mobile phone compared to the computer they use at home. However, 39 per cent said websites load more slowly on their phone.

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As much as 58 per cent of web users say they expect a website to load on their mobile phone in 3 seconds or less and 81 per cent are willing to wait 5 seconds or less for a single web page to load before leaving the site.

Close to 50 per cent are only willing to wait 5 seconds or less for an application to load before exiting.

Fifty eight per cent of web users in India had a problem accessing a website in the past year and 52 per cent had a problem accessing an app on their phone. More than 93 per cent of mobile web users would access websites more often from their phone if the experience was as fast and reliable.

Mobile users do not have much patience for retrying a website or application that is not functioning initially - 39 per cent will go to a competitor’s site instead. The majority of mobile web users are only willing to retry a website (68 per cent) or application (77 per cent) two times or less if it does not work initially.

A bad experience on a mobile website leaves web users much less likely to return to, or recommend, a particular website. Nearly half of the web users (48 per cent) are unlikely to return to a website that they had trouble accessing from their phone and 57 per cent are unlikely to recommend the site.