Sprint Nextel Wins Mobile Portal Discoverability
The Strategy Analytics Wireless Media Lab has recently evaluated the portal experience of leading network operator providers in the US and concludes that Sprint has the best in class US operator portal, marginally ahead of Verizon Wireless. Achieving the highest score for Portal Accessibility, Sprint was rated the best portal experience for access and download content, shortest time taken and highest user satisfaction. Overall, 65% of our mobile panel users chose SprintNextel as the preferred portal model.
"The Verizon Wireless portal was rated only one point behind Sprint overall," commented Paul Brown, User Experience Analyst at Strategy Analytics. "However, a number of users found accessing Verizon Wireless to be initially difficult due to a lack of clear terminology."
David Kerr, VP of the Global Wireless Practice, added "Users considered Cingular/AT&T's portal poorly organized and difficult to navigate. No participant, for example, could locate MobiTV on the Cingular portal without assistance. By contrast, Verizon Wireless is the Strategy Analytics US Portal Click Index leader with users completing the specified tasks (access portal, buy a game, buy a music track, access mobile TV/video) with fewest clicks."
Other findings from the benchmark report on US mobile portals include:
- AT&T Cingular scored lowest on portal discoverability
- Helio performed well on portal discovery but was rated poorly for User Interface.
- Clicks required to buy music ranged from a best of 18 to a staggering 39 for the category laggard.
- The best in class mobile portal required 17 clicks to buy a game.
Posted to the site on 22nd May 2007
