Few companies or users currently find WAP useful, say analysts. According to analyst firm Forrester Research, 60 percent of users are dissatisfied. It suggested poorly designed sites might be partly to blame  80 percent of WAP sites it tested lacked basic navigation aids. Firms wanting to set up WAP sites should seek help from professional Web designers, Forrester concluded.
Other reports reveal that many mobile users plan to stick with older non-WAP wireless devices, or wait for new devices that are reliant on WAP.
Major changes clearly need to be made to enhance WAP's popularity. Peter Terry, a service-management group manager at IT services firm Electronic Data Systems (EDS), said companies should think carefully about the type of content users will want to access while on the move, as it may differ markedly from their requirements at home or in the office. 'I will not order a pair of jeans from my phone, but travel-related content will be very useful,' he said.
Another complaint is that WAP pages look unattractive. One IT consultant said, 'What users want are things that look like normal Web pages, not cut-down versions without all the nice images and graphics that make surfing pleasurable.'
A project manager at a UK council reported similar negative experience. He said he had considered buying WAP-enabled phones. '[But] at that time only small screens were available, and of the sites I tried, some didn't work properly, some didn't work at all and the few that had useful information were too slow,' he said.
One suggestion put forward by Carsten Schmidt, an associate analyst at Forrester, is that firms wishing to set up a WAP offering should employ the services of Web and WAP design agencies, rather than carrying out the process in-house. He said design agencies have clear ideas on what is going wrong and what needs to be done.
David Anderson, owner of Canvas Dreams, a WAP development company, said a major problem is that WAP has been 'mistreated as a form of 'Web-lite', in which Web user interface design is applied to the mobile template' . He argued that this approach has led to inadequate navigation tools and inappropriate content.
Anderson said that to make WAP sites more appealing, it should be easy to drill down into content and navigation should be straightforward. Ingredients for success included simple layout, and content that is quick to download. He added that firms should consider the restrictions of WAP devices, such as limited memory capacity.
But Anderson saw the first consideration as whether a WAP offering will benefit the company or customers. Firms should avoid jumping on the bandwagon if there is no clear advantage to the business, he said.
Steven Scott, senior development consultant at Web and WAP developer Esolve, said a major problem is the lack of consistency in mobile devices and page displays, an issue dealt with by such companies as Anywhereyougo.com, which tests online sites for consistency between Web and WAP.
James Pearce, its UK director, said WAP offerings are 'not even as exciting as Teletext', but predicted this will improve once WAP is run over the GPRS infrastructure. He added, 'The protocol itself is spot-on, but that is no good if it is not implemented properly.'
