because the pages with more results
took just an extra half-second to load. 5
User expectations have only escalated since then. A 2009 study by Forrester Research on behalf of Akamai
identified two seconds as the threshold for acceptable Web-page response
times and found that 40% of consumers abandon a page that takes longer
than three seconds to load. Just one
year later, another study done for Akamai found that the number of users
who abandon a page after three seconds had risen to 57%. 1, 7
Image from ShutterStock.com
Furthermore, users on mobile de-
vices expect performance to be at least
as good as—if not better than—what
they experience on their desktop. The
Harris Interactive 2011 Mobile Trans-
actions Survey, commissioned by Tea-
leaf Technology (now IBM), reported
that 85% of adults who had conducted
a mobile transaction in the previous
year expected the mobile experience
to be equal to or better than shopping
online using a laptop or desktop com-
puter, and 63% said they would be less
likely to buy from the same company
via other channels if they experienced
a problem conducting a transaction on
their mobile phones. 10 In other words,
poor mobile performance hurts com-
panies on all other platforms, includ-
ing bricks-and-mortar.
