It seems as though the awesome 4G speeds we’ve seen in PCWorld tests may have backfired for the mobile industry: according to the survey, 71 percent of users say they expect their mobile internet to match the speeds they see on their home computer.
Speed expectations also vary from country to country. For example, 78 percent of users in China say they expect mobile sites to load in under three seconds, while just 58 percent of respondents in the United States expect similar quickness.
These expectations may have negative effects on sites that want to attract mobile users. A whopping 74 percent of mobile users say they won’t wait more than 5 seconds for a mobile website to load, but only 23 percent of top companies’ mobile sites load in that time. One third of respondents say they go to a competitor’s page when a site takes too long to load on their mobile phone.
These expectations also raise questions about how consumers will react to attempts by wireless companies to end unlimited mobile data plans.
Unlike many smaller surveys, Compuware’s survey is reportedly statistically significant to the wider population. Compuware surveyed 4,014 global mobile web users, giving the survey a 3 percent margin of error.
Compuware also released an infographic that helps put these numbers into context.
