Users have certain expectations of products and services. If these expectations are met by some in the class, but not by others, then competitive forces reward the top performers. If the entire class fails to meet them, then the class fails or an innovator will subsequently disrupt the status quo.

With web pages, Internet users have an expectation that pages will load within a ‘reasonable’ amount of time. What is reasonable varies, but it is generally agreed that the sweet spot is somewhere under 3 seconds. A recent Akamai survey found that 47 percent of consumers expect a load time of less than 2 seconds. In fact, 40 percent of respondents indicated that they would leave a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

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