Due to smaller screen size and different input methods (touch screen) of mobile devices, many Web applications look different when loaded on a mobile device compared to a browser on a PC. From a load testing perspective such applications should be treated as two separate applications, even though they might share some components on the back-end.
Silk Performer fully supports performance testing of mobile Web and native apps. It offers simulation capabilities for a variety of mobile devices, such as iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry, but other mobile browsers can also be simulated with custom profiles.
An interesting and important simulation parameter for mobile app testing is the bandwidth limitation. This option is not significant for usual Web testing via PCs due to the fast wired (broadband) internet connections, however for real world simulation of mobile devices it makes a real difference to set the bandwidth to particular limits. Silk Performer offers many standard bandwidth limitation settings used in the mobile world, such as EDGE, HSDPA, or LTE.