WAP continues to fall short of consumer expectations and mobile commerce's prospects are dim for the next few years according to a study by the Nielsen Norman Group.
Only 30% of a group given WAP to trial for a week said they would continue to use it. The group found WAP services to be poorly designed and with insufficient task analysis.
Many sites contained brochureware that worked fine in print such as big images, but didn't work in a small interactive medium. For WAP each service needs to be distilled down to its essence.
The study found that: “Service providers must cultivate a new appreciation for language and hire copywriters who can develop a distinct voice in a minimum word count.”
Even at the end of the trial the group found that even the simplest tasks took too long. One user worked out that it would be cheaper to buy a newspaper and just keep the TV guide than it would be to look up the evening's viewing over the phone.
