[Bostwick]

One of the assumptions made by this article is that the user in question is loading your web page with jQuery on a mobile device running on a 4G network. In reality, however, it is unlikely that a user will be on a 4G network. In 2004, the 4G penetration is 25% in North America, and only 3% in Western Europe. [1] It's certainly growing on a yearly basis, but it's still not at the point where you can rely on users having 4G speeds on a mobile device.

The 4G worst-case scenario is still better than the best-case scenario for a 3G network, which is what you'll see with a majority of users. I'd like to see this analysis done with a 3G connection as well, because I suspect the real jQuery tax for a majority of mobile users is over a second.

I do like the point made about latency and the suggestions at the bottom of the article. It's a strong incentive for apps to introduce a real asset pipeline and js and css minifiers.

[1] http://graphics.wsj.com/4g-european-investment/

[frik]

4G and 3G often falls back to Edge (or even GPRS with bad latency) in Europe. And with Edge you better make sure your JS file is smaller than 200kb (for a web app), otherwise your mobile user with Edge connection will have to wait some seconds (load time). jQuery itself is already 81kb (compressed).

[SimeVidas]

1Mbsp == "worst mobile networks"? Maybe if your website is a social network for US millionaires :-P. What if your visitors are from around the world? Here in Croatia, we don't even have 3G in some parts of the country.