Mobile Phone Media Downloads Are Difficult For Consumers
The Usable Products Company have revealed the results of a study into the usability of US mobile phones when paying for and downloading ring tones, wallpapers and games. Interviews were conducted on each of 13 different mobile telephone models offered by Audiovox, Blackberry, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sanyo, available from Cingular, Sprint (and Sprint Nextel), T-Mobile, Verizon, and Virgin Mobile.
The press release says…
"The average rankings for mobile phone enhancement purchase and installation: 1. Sprint Samsung a680 2. Sprint Sanyo 5500 3. T-Mobile Motorola v600 4. Verizon Samsung a670 5. Cingular LG L1400 6. Virgin Mobile Audiovox Flasher V7 7. T-Mobile Nokia 6101 8. Verizon LG VX7000 9. Sprint Nextel Motorola i710 10. T-Mobile Blackberry 7100t 11. Cingular Motorola RAZR 12. T-Mobile Nokia 3660 13. Cingular Nokia 6620…
… The Cingular Motorola RAZR’s poor usability surprised us, coming in with a 47% success rate for ring tone download and installation, as compared to a 94% success rate for the T-Mobile Motorola v600. Participants had difficulty finding the place from which they could buy media, and extra steps to complete downloads stymied users."
I think ‘extra steps’ is the key phrase here. The more steps people have to go through, the more likely they are to give up, especially when a particular step might be difficult or non-intuitive. I have heard (unsubstantiated) claims that Nokia’s usability studies show that you can lose up to 20% of users with each extra step. In my experience, the ’step’ can become a wall when you expect people to register separately online, via a PC, before using a connected mobile application.