ABSTRACT
The convergence of the Internet and wireless technologies is fuelling expectations of growth in wireless data services. One wireless data service platform for mobile computing is WAP – offering distinctive, small-screen Web offerings for handheld devices. Although developed specifically for the current technological environment, WAP is designed to be extensible enough to grow with the evolution of infrastructure. In the United Kingdom, WAP services have been widely available since autumn 1999 and the number of Web sites has grown considerably. However, as yet, there is little research into the qualities of a good WAP site, which we expect to be very different from that of traditional Web sites. With these issues in mind, we set about a programme of research aimed at assessing the general perception regarding current WAP offerings and developing an 218instrument capable of evaluating WAP sites. In earlier work, we reported the development of the WebQual instrument in the domain of traditional Internet the quality of Web sites (Barnes and Vidgen, 2000, 2001a, b). In this chapter, such prior research was used as the basis for an instrument adapted to take into account the WAP environment and mobile user context.
