2015 State of the Union
Mobile Web Performance
We have a love/hate relationship with
mobile
7% of US adults rely on their smartphones
Source: Pew Research
Almost half of US adults
“can’t live without” their smartphone
Source: Pew Research
39% of mobile users are unhappy
Source: Akamai
57% have experienced problems
Source: Akamai
3 out of 4 consider mobile slower than desktop
Source: Akamai
46% will not return
to a site that performs poorly
Source: Akamai
Only about 1 out of 10 prefer to shop via mobile
Source: Akamai
So why bother with mobile?
Because mobile is growing fast
Source: Ericsson
Source: Ericsson
4 out of 5 people worldwide will own a smartphone
Because mobile users are more
engaged
Source: Akamai
Product searches (weekly)
Because mobile users shop more
Source: Akamai
Consumers who make at least one purchase per week
What are mobile shoppers buying?
Source: Criteo
Because mobile users spend more
Source: Akamai
Annual spending per device
The US is not the global benchmark
Text is good
Source: Criteo
The future of mobile commerce?
Source: Criteo
How fast do mobile users
expect pages to be?
Just a 1-second delay hurts mobile metrics
Source: SOASTA
Source: SOASTA
Just a 1-second delay hurts mobile metrics
What’s wrong with mobile
performance?
Page bloatNumber of resources
ScriptsCustom fonts
RedirectsHTTPS
Mobile page bloat
Source: Mobile HTTP Archive
The average page has grown by 3X since 2011
Source: Mobile HTTP Archive
Lara Hogan, Web performance is user experience
Images account for 63% of page weight
Source: Mobile HTTP Archive
CompressReformatUse WebP
SpriteDefer
Preload
Learn more: High Performance Images (Guy Podjarny)
1 out of 5 pages contains 100+ resources
Source: Mobile HTTP Archive
Fix back endLeverage browser cacheConsolidate resources
Use a CDN
JavaScript usage continues to rise
Source: Mobile HTTP Archive
Know when to say “no”Use async scripts when possible
Watch this talk…
48% of pages served to mobile use custom fonts
Source: Mobile HTTP Archive
Custom fonts can require huge amounts of CSS, heavy JS, or external hosting
Use only when necessaryBetter yet, disable them for
mobile
Read: Webfont optimization (Ilya Grigorik)
1 out of 5 pages contains 5+ redirects
Source: Mobile HTTP Archive
Read:
How to minimize redirects (Patrick Sexton)
URL redirect fails (Brad Frost)
16% of pages contain HTTPS requests
Source: Mobile HTTP Archive
Verify certificate configurationEnable keep-alives
Consider HTTP Strict Transport Security header
Read: HTTPS and Web Performance (Dean Hume)
Page bloat has a cost
Many smartphone owners exceed their data cap
Source: Pew Research
Low- and middle-earners more likely to max data
Source: Pew Research
Is mobile an essential
service?
Some companies now charge extra for paper billingMany companies now only post jobs onlineGovernment services moving online, physical offices shutting downFinancial services for seniors and shut-insHigh school and university students need to access online research and communications tools
7% of US adults rely on their smartphones
Source: Pew Research
Takeaways
People need mobileMost mobile users are dissatisfied#1 cause of slowdowns: Page size
#2 cause of slowdowns: Page complexity
Slowdowns hurt your visitorsSlowdowns hurt you
You can make things better
mPulse Profor 3 months
for freesoasta.io/mobileperf