Report: Mobile content discovery a disaster

A frankly mind-boggling new report issued by market research firm Strategy Analytics concludes that Sprint Nextel offers the best-in-class U.S. mobile operator portal, achieving the highest score for portal accessibility--a back-handed compliment at best, however.

According to the Strategy Analytics study, 65 percent of panelists rated Sprint the best portal experience for access and download content, efficiency and highest user satisfaction, earning 82 out of 100 possible overall portal ratings points. Verizon Wireless was rated only one point behind overall, although "a number of users found accessing Verizon Wireless to be initially difficult due to a lack of clear terminology," said Strategy Analytics user experience analyst Paul Brown in a prepared statement.

AT&T/Cingular ranked lowest on portal discoverability, while MVNO Helio did well on portal discovery but earned harsh ratings for user interface. Most unsettling, Strategy Analytics reports that the number of clicks required to buy music spans from 18 to 39--even the best-in-class mobile portal demands a minimum of 17 clicks simply to download a mobile game.

"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," said David Kerr, VP of Strategy Analytics' global wireless practice, in a prepared statement. "By contrast, Verizon Wireless is the Strategy Analytics U.S. 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."

For reasons not made clear by Strategy Analytics, operators including T-Mobile, Alltel and Virgin Mobile USA were not included in the study. All things considered, any carrier left out of the report should consider its omission an extremely fortunate development.  

For more on the Strategy Analytics report:
- read this release