When technology entrepreneur and icon Steve Jobs passed away on Wednesday, Oct. 5, mobile traffic spiked as consumers turned to their devices to learn about the news. Unfortunately, some sites were not ready to deal with the surge in traffic.

According to Internet and mobile cloud monitoring company Keynote Systems, the majority of traffic happened around 4:30 p.m. ET. Although all carriers experienced problems loading pages, Keynote used measurement from a T-Mobile 2G device to get data from the best cross-section of users, which caused problems.

?Most news organizations have the capacity to handle Web traffic during breaking news events, but mobile has less capacity,? said Herman Ng, mobile performance evangelist at Keynote Systems, San Mateo, CA.

?For the Steve Jobs news, people wanted to read in real-time, which meant they used their mobile devices significantly more,? he said.

By the numbers
According to data from Keynote Systems, mobile Web site traffic experienced problems handling the skyrocket in traffic while desktop traffic remained steady.

Both CNN and The Washington Post experienced loading problems on their mobile sites.

After 4:30 p.m. ET, loading times on CNN?s mobile site increased from approximately 20 seconds to 40 seconds.

?When people hear about breaking news, there is usually a quick jam in traffic,? Mr. Ng said.

?As soon as people find out that Steve Jobs had died, the first instinct is to grab the phone to check the news before they get home,? he said.

Additionally, each carrier responded to the increase in traffic differently.

Around 5 p.m., CNN began directing consumers to the CNN Web site instead of the mobile site after realizing the jam, which caused for a drop in user experience.

CNN also redirected users to the CNN Web site at 6:45 p.m. after consumers waited two minutes for the page to load.

The data collected for T-Mobile's service was measured via BlackBerry Curve devices. AT&T measured data on iPhone devices. Sprint used the HTC Evo to measure data. Verizon measured data on Android X devices.

By 7 p.m. ET, loading times came back down and traffic remained steady for the rest of the evening.

The Washington Post saw less traffic overall than CNN but also experienced a wave of mobile hits between 3:30 p.m. ET and 4:30 p.m. ET.

Again, T-Mobile experienced the longest landing page times, averaging around 50 seconds at 4:30 p.m.

The Washington Post saw a final hit of traffic around 8 p.m. with landing page times averaging around 60 seconds across all carriers.

?Between CNN and The Washington Post data, CNN saw more traffic but actively does something about it when it got bad by switching users to a Web page from the mobile site,? Mr. Ng said.

According to Mr. Ng, this type of mobile activity is normal with other breaking news spikes and compared the activity to the digital traffic experienced after the death of Michael Jackson.

The Associated Press also saw a flood of mobile traffic after the news broke.

"We saw a spike of four times what we usually see," said Michael Boord, global director of mobile products at the AP, New York.

"When compared to the same minute the day before, there was an increase of 17x right after the news was released," he said.

"It was more than a typical breaking news story, but not as big as after Michael Jackson's death."

According to Mr. Boord, mobile traffic increased eight-fold after the death of Michael Jackson.

Measure of a man
President Obama said this after hearing about the death of Steve Jobs:

?There may be no greater tribute to Steve?s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.?

Similarly, Marci Troutman, CEO of Siteminis, Atlanta, agrees that Jobs? impact on consumers has fundamentally shaped the way consumers digest news.

?With more consumers on mobile than on the desktop, his vision has been realized, and is coming to fruition not only in North America but worldwide,? Ms. Troutman said.

?I, for one love that consumers are using their mobiles for content as this validates everything we have been doing over the last decade and makes it even more relevant for companies globally to understand the need and urgency of making sure they have a mobile strategy in place,? she said.

?Steve Jobs was a true visionary and his presence will be missed by millions - he truly touched the younger generation that is our future and has grown up on his technology.?

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York