Cingular close to bottom of the class on portal usability

by: admin Friday, May 25th, 2007

Rating: could do better much, much better

AT&T (Cingular as was) came out second to bottom in the Click Index that is, how many clicks it takes on the mobile portal to get what you want. The leader, Sprint, has nothing to be too proud of though apparently it takes
17 clicks to buy a game.

AT&T was found to be the least helpful to visitors trying to find content, but again, the leader, Helio in this category, has work to do. Its user interface failed to impress.

AT&T needs to pull its socks up. Not only is it delivering a poor user experience, but it’s looking the wrong way as the parade goes past. For reasons beyond me, it thinks being big is enough. As its new name should tell it, this is living in a fool’s paradise just look what happened to the apparently unassailable, original AT&T, which was also looking the other way when the fixed line industry evolved.

AT&T (Cingular) likes to throw its weight around and has stated publicly it has no time for initiatives striving to provide a uniform, mobile platform for big brand advertising, although it has now signed up to the new GSM Association Programme.

The thing is, it has two choices. It can fit into the evolving ecosystem which will see mobile become another medium for advertising and marketing or it can go the way of the dinosaurs and the original AT&T. And if it is going to remain a force in mobile, it needs to become much, much more customer orientated and fast. The i-Phone won’t be enough.

For more info on the survey see
http://www.strategyanalytics.com/press/PR00426.htm