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Conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom, the research shows that test participants encountered difficulties in completing tasks using the cell phone websites, with an average success rate of 59%, compared to the success rate of 80% for surfing the Internet on a desktop. Jakob Nielsen, the principal of Nielsen Norman Group, even described the phrase "mobile usability" as an oxymoron, saying that web browsing on cell phones is "neither easy nor pleasant".

Based on the users’ feedback, four main hurdles of cell phone Internet are identified:

1. The cell phone screens are too small to show all options necessary for solving tasks.

2. It is difficult to enter texts on small keyboards and to operate GUI widgets without a mouse.
3. The cell phone Internet connection is not fast enough and it takes a long time getting to the next screen.

4. Browsing websites optimized for regular PCs is not easy. The users did better in completing tasks on websites designed for cell phones.

Apparently, the first two obstacles are caused by the design of handsets. In fact, realizing customers’ demand on cell phone usability, many handset makers have integrated Internet-oriented designs into their smartphones. For example, hot and new models like Apple’s iPhone 3GS, Nokia N97 and Palm Pre are equipped with large touchscreen displays to maximize the joy of cell phone web browsing. Handset makers also try to make typing as comfortable as possible by creating a tactile QWERTY keyboard, which is sometimes, accompanied by trackball navigation, like the T-Mobile Dash 3G and BlackBerry Curve.

As for connection speed, the problem lies in network service providers. According to a report by consumer site Broadband Genie, approximately 64% of cell phone broadband users among 1,160 respondents are unsatisfied with the speed of their connection. A further 24.7 per cent said they were not sure if the service they received matched what is advertised. Researchers believed that there is still a long way to go before cell phone becomes comparable to fixed-line broadband.

The last obstacle is the badly designed websites, which may in fact be the key for improving cell phone user experience. Nielsen’s research reveals that when test participants used sites designed specifically for cell phones instead of the normal ones, their average success rates rise to 64% from 53%. But the problem is that there are not many cell phone-optimized websites available at the moment.

Unless the above problems are solved, users will not be able to gain any enjoyable web browsing experience on their cell phones. We are now waiting for a breakthrough in the cell phone Internet technology.