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A Study of the Trend of Smartphone and its Usage Behavior in Malaysia

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International Journal on New Computer Architectures and Their Applications (IJNCAA) 2(1): 274-285
The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications, 2012 (ISSN: 2220-9085)

A Study of the Trend of Smartphone and

its Usage Behavior in Malaysia

Mohd Azam Osman1, Abdullah Zawawi Talib1, Zainal Abidin Sanusi2,

Tan Shiang-Yen1, Abdullah Sani Alwi3
1 2 3
School of Computer Center of Global Strategy Department &
Sciences Sustainability Studies Creative Industrial Policy
Universiti Sains Malaysia Universiti Sains Malaysia MSC Malaysia
11800 USM, Pulau Pinang, 11800 USM, Pulau Pinang, 63000 Cyber Jaya, Selangor
MALAYSIA MALAYSIA MALAYSIA
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS

The purpose of this exploratory study is to Mobile phone, Smartphone, Usage behavior,
better understand the current dynamics of Market survey, Consumers study
the Malaysian market for smartphone and
the usage behaviors of consumers. This 1 INTRODUCTION
paper presents the result of a survey on the
trend of smartphone from the perspective of Mobile phone usage has proliferated in
end consumers. The data was collected from recent years. Some areas of the world have
1814 respondents across major cities in enjoyed rapid deployment and high
Malaysia. This study has looked into the penetration of mobile telephony. 70% of the
familiarity of users towards smartphones, world‟s population own at least one mobile
choices of smartphone brand and service phone. Based on the statistics, children in
providers, and most importantly the United States now are more likely to own a
determinants that influence their purchasing mobile phone than a book, with 85% of kids
decision. Additionally, the consumers‟ owning a phone as to only 73% owning
preferences on smartphone specifications books [1]. Without exception, Malaysia is
such as design, computing power, operating one of the countries riding the wave of
platform, and price were investigated. telecommunication evolution. Mobile phone
Furthermore, consumers‟ usage behaviors usage in Malaysia has gained the ever
such as using smartphone for email, web increasing momentum. It is reported that
browsing, gaming, and document reading 85% of Malaysians own mobile phone(s)
were examined. The statistics presented [2].
provides fundamental information regarding Most of the mobile phones nowadays
the trends in the smartphone market and are addressed as „smartphone‟, as they offer
usage behaviors in Malaysia. Such more advanced computing power and
information are useful for academics for the connectivity than a contemporary mobile
development of future works in the field, phone. Along with the smartphone
whereas for smartphone manufacturers, fundamental capabilities to make voice call,
application developers and other video call, SMS, and MMS, smartphones
stakeholders, they are able to plan their have been repositioned as a “new
direction in the Malaysian smartphone information medium” [3]. In other words,
market.

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The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications, 2012 (ISSN: 2220-9085)

smartphones have extended list of relevant stakeholders in the industry would

information processing functionalities such greatly appreciated the information as they
as managing personal time schedule, can be used to strategize their marketing
accessing Internet contents, editing strategies, and plan for the future directions.
documents, utilizing location-awareness
function, and many other exciting 3 HISTORY OF CELLULAR
applications. Nonetheless, no matter how NETWORKS IN MALAYSIA
smart the smartphone is; it will not result in
expected benefits and effectiveness, if they The first cellular network was introduced by
are not being utilized [4]. Telekom Malaysia in 1985, based on NMT
With the sheer size of smartphone 450. The mobile phones were initially big
market, it influences the economic growth in and bulky. Subsequently, the country‟s
a country and provides job opportunities in second 1G cellular operator, Celcom started
the economic chain [5]. The market in 1989 with the introduction of ART 900
opportunities for mobile phone software and (Automatic Radio Telecommunication 900)
mobile contents are huge and attractive. For based on British ETACS technology
instance, the sales for ringtone download in (Extended Total Access Communications
Europe and Japan totaled US$5 billion in System) [9]. With the system, the size of
2003. Regardless of the macro impact of the mobile phones became considerably smaller,
smartphone market, the demands largely making them more acceptable.
depend on the individual consumers. Hence, In the middle of 1990, Malaysia adopted
an understanding of the smartphone market three different 2G mobile network standards.
and trends from the perspective of Two of them were European-based, namely
consumers are valuable. GSM900 (Global System for Mobile
Telecommunications) and PCN1800
2 PROBLEM STATEMENTS (Personal Communications Networks). The
American-based standard was TDMA (Time
Despite the pervasiveness of smartphone Division Multiple Access) [9]. However, the
penetration in Malaysia, surveys that have different 2G technologies did not well
been carried out are still less and far integrate as they were based on different
between for adequate understanding of the standards.
consumers‟ preferences on smartphone and In late 2004 and early 2005, the
behaviors on the smartphone usage. consolidation of cellular operators in
Moreover, most of the previous studies Malaysia was completed with the
focused on the usage of specific mobile encouragement from the government,
applications [6-8], the overall picture of bringing the number of cellular operators
smartphone market in Malaysia is unclear, down to only 3 operators, namely Celcom,
and the statistics are hardly available. Thus, Maxis, and DiGi. This period also
the purpose of this study is to provide the represented the phasing out of the 1G
information on the consumers‟ preference cellular networks, namely ATUR450 and
on smartphone and its usage behavior in ART900 in Malaysia [9].
Malaysia. Subsequently, the 2.5G - General Packet
Such information are vitally important Radio Services (GPRS) came into the
for both academics and practitioners. From picture. It is a packet-based wireless
the academic viewpoint, the overview of the communication service specifically designed
smartphone market in Malaysia provides for data and allows for continuous
them a foundation where they further design connection to the Internet for mobile phone
their research. On the other hands, and computer users. The entry of GPRS
practitioners such as mobile phone enabled consumers to instantly access WAP,
manufacturers, application developers, and HTML or even I-mode sites using

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The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications, 2012 (ISSN: 2220-9085)

appropriate mobile phones, PDAs or are offering HSDPA connectivity in major

Notebooks [10]. With the available of cities around Malaysia [9].
GPRS, information became accessible from 4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
anywhere, anytime, anyplace, as it allows
info to be sent and received across a mobile 4.1 Overview of Methods
network.
2.75G or better known as Enhanced In order to collect generalizable data that
Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), an represent the whole population from the
add-on to GPRS to increase data rates on the samples, questionnaire survey was adopted
GPRS link, is a radio-based high-speed as a data collection method. Moreover,
mobile data standard that allows data questionnaire survey is a commonly used in
transmission speeds of 384kbps. EDGE was similar research [11-13]. This study
initially developed for mobile network collected primary data through questionnaire
operators who were either unable to obtain survey that targets at individual users.
the 3G spectrum or did not wish to bid for Subsequently, the data collected were
one. This gave incumbent GSM operators analyzed using appropriate non-parametric
the opportunity to offer data services at analysis method and presented in an
speeds that are close to those available on intuitive and insightful presentation format.
3G networks. In Malaysia, DiGi
Telecommunication launched their EDGE
4.2 Subject and Procedures
network throughout Klang Valley in May,
2004. Although Maxis also implemented
The data used in this study were collected
EDGE, they have not promoted it heavily as
via both online and offline self-
they concentrated more on 3G [10].
administrated survey. The data were
3G started in Malaysia in the second
collected from the publics across the main
half of 1995 [9]. It is a packet-based
cities in Malaysia. Publics in main cities are
transmission of text, digitized video and
selected as the respondents because they
multimedia at data rates up to and possibly
constitute the major propositions of
higher than 2 megabits per second (Mbps),
Smartphone user in Malaysia. Hence, it
offering a consistent set of services to
implies that the purposive sampling method
mobile computer and phone users wherever
is adopted in this study. Publics in major
they may be in the world. Once 3G is fully
cities of Malaysia were common samples
implemented, they can be constantly
chosen by previous studies on mobile phone
connected to the Internet, given their service
usage in Malaysia [2, 14].
provider‟s roaming capabilities. For better
The questionnaire items are designed in
perspective, there are two 3G formats in the
such way that technical jargons are
world. CDMA 2000 is implemented in the
minimized in order to enhance the
United States and Korea while WCDMA
understandability for the users from
2000 is implemented in Malaysia. With
different knowledge backgrounds. At the
regard to the transmission speed, 3G is 6
end of data collection process, a total of
times faster than GPRS and 3 times faster
1814 sets of questionnaire have been
than EDGE.
successfully collected and usable. By
HSDPA technology or generally known
acquiring this large sample size, the data
as 3.5G is an upgraded network path that
collected is speculated to has low level of
allows higher data transfer speed. HSDPA
random errors, and the responses should be
stands for High Speed Downlink Packet
well distributed over all answer categories
Access. The minimum speed of HSDPA that
[15]. Thus, the quality of data is considered
can be achieved is 5 times faster than the
as fairly good, and suitable for data analysis.
current 3G technology (384kbps). As of
November 2007, both Maxis and Celcom

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The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications, 2012 (ISSN: 2220-9085)

can be inferred that the samples in this study

are likely to be reflective of the population,
5 DATA ANALYSIS as the large sample size does.

5.1 Profile of Respondents 5.2 Familiarity towards Smartphone

Demographic variables indicate the profile Fig. 1 illustrates the familiarity of

of respondents, which could also be helpful respondents toward Smartphone. The data
for the understanding of the subsequent shows that approximately 72% of
analysis of the outcomes. Table 1 shows the respondents are common users, about 17%
demographic of the respondents. The are advanced users, while about 11 % work
statistics shows that approximately 90% of in the field related to mobile phone such as
the respondents are below 36 years old. This engineers, software developers, or customer
result is consistent to previous studies which service staff, or sales personnel. On the
found that majority of the smartphone users other hand, the advanced users are those
are teenagers and younger adults [16]. By who have advanced knowledge more than a
comparing the respondent profiles with common user. For instance, advanced users
respondent profiles in the Mobile Phone may have the knowledge to tweak the
User Survey conducted by Malaysian smartphone for better performance, and to
Communications and Multimedia frequently follow the latest news and
Commission (MCMC) that based on 4,925 updates about smartphone. This implies that
respondents [2], the structure of respondents majority of consumers in Malaysia are
are found to be similar. In other words, it common users, with typical level of
knowledge that is sufficient for typical usage
Table 1. Profile of Respondents
Item Frequency Percentage (%)
Gender
Male 947 52.2
Female 867 47.8
Total 1814 100
Age
16 and Less 77 4.2
17 – 26 1178 64.9
27 – 36 378 20.8
37 – 46 101 5.6
47 – 56 64 3.5
More than 57 16 0.9
Total 1814 100
Education level
Secondary 740 40.8
Bachelor 856 47.2
Master 94 5.2
Ph. D 17 0.9
Others 107 5.9
Total 1814 100
Occupation
Government 118 6.5
Professional 165 9.1
Self-Employed 146 8.0
Freelancer 793 43.7
Student 176 9.7
Executive 29 1.6
Management 143 7.9
Retired 71 3.9
Unemployed 22 1.2
Others 151 8.3
Total 1814 100
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 International Journal on New Computer Architectures and Their Applications (IJNCAA) 2(1): 274-285
The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications, 2012 (ISSN: 2220-9085)

from their proprietary operating system to

Android OS, which is reflected through the
circumstance that about 80% of their new
smartphone are loaded with Android OS.
In terms of service provider, majority of
the respondents are the subscribers of Maxis
(47%) and DiGi (39%), and the rests are
Fig. 1. Familiarity of Respondents towards Smartpohone subscribers of Celcom (13%) and U-Mobile
(1%). All of the service providers do provide
of mobile phone such as making phone call, 3G data services. DiGi offers unlimited data
SMS, MMS, multimedia playing, and plan at approximately USD 27 per month,
operating common applications. while Maxis offers various data plans ranged
Fig. 2 has pointed out that male from 3 gigabytes data limit at the price USD
consumers tend to have higher familiarity 27 per month, to 12 gigabytes data limit at
towards smartphone compared to their the price of USD 66 per month. The prices
female counterparts. It implies that of 3G data services have become reasonable
smartphones as a kind of information and and affordable by the majority of the
communication technologies do inherit the consumers. Hence, it is not irrational to posit
nature of general technology in which male that the competitive pricing of 3G data
users are speculated to have higher interest service could has contribute to the
and skills in technology [17]. popularity of 3G smartphone in Malaysia.

5.4 Preferences of Internet Connection

The data also indicate that more respondents

prefer to connect to Internet through Wi-Fi
(62%) than 3G (38%). This result would
imply that the Wi-Fi wireless network
adapter is perceived as a necessity in the
Smartphones. Nonetheless, the 3G
capabilities of a smartphone do not loss its
importance. 3G data network is expected to
gradually become the main network in the
Fig. 2. Familiarity Crosstab by Gender market in the near future. This is because 3G
wireless data services are gaining
momentum in Malaysia as the competitive
5.3 Brands and Service Providers price offered by service providers and the
signal coverage areas have been
Among the respondents, Nokia (40%) is the significantly expanded.
most popular brand, followed by Sony
Ericsson (34%) and Apple iPhone (11%).
Blackberry and HTC respectively constitute
5% and 4% of the total. As the brand is
closely related to the operating platform, this
information provides a hint to application 5.5 Determinants of Purchasing
developers about the common operating Decision
platforms in Malaysia. For instance, most of
devices from Nokia are loaded with their As a main interest of this study, the
respective proprietary operating system, determinants of smartphone purchasing
namely Symbian OS. There is a visible trend decision have been identified and discussed.
that Sony Ericson is gradually changing Table 2 shows the percentage of total

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International Journal on New Computer Architectures and Their Applications (IJNCAA) 2(1): 274-285
The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications, 2012 (ISSN: 2220-9085)

respondents that have chosen a particular are fairly equal in in terms of gender. In
determinant. other words, the trend is a pertinent factor of
Table 2. Factors of Acquiring Smartphone
acquiring smartphone for both male and
Determinants Percentage (%)
female consumers. The same situation
Trend in community 35.6 applies on other factors, namely needs, cost
Needs 34.4 of plan, and others; they are all considerably
Software 33.1 equal in terms of gender.
Cost of plan 28.8 Nonetheless, the percentage of male
Hardware 17.6
Signal reception 11.0 respondents who choose software and
Others 3.5 hardware as the purchasing determinant are
obviously higher than the percentage of
For instance, 35.6% of the total 1814 female respondents. For example, 61% of
respondents reported that the trend in the respondents who agreed that hardware is
community is an important criterion that important are male, whereas only 39% of
influences smartphone purchasing decision. those who agreed on this are female. It
The next most important determinants are implies that in general there are more male
the needs for the smartphone, software consumers who tend to perceive hardware
preferences, cost of plan, and hardware. and software of smartphones as an important
Signal reception seems to be the weakest factor than the female consumers do.
determinants for the consumers to acquire
smartphone. A point worth to be emphasized 5.6 Preference of Smartphone
is that about 30% of the respondents agreed Specifications
that cost of plan is an important factor to be
considered in the purchase decision process. Additionally, the preferences of respondents
Nowadays it is common that cellular on the specifications of Smartphone device
providers offer attractive package where are presented in the Table 3. Based on Table
consumers can purchase the mobile phone 3, the design of smartphones is reported as
with discounted price, with the condition the most common specification that user
that they will be bonded with the cellular considers when buying a smartphone, where
operator for a specified period. The finding 56% of the respondents feel that it is
in this study indicates that these attractive important. As design is the most visible
offers have become one of the important feature and representing the first impression
determinants for the consumers in Malaysia to the consumers, it is sound that design
in buying a smartphone. becomes the specification that is prevalent to
The overall results demonstrate that trend most of the consumers. Previous studies
in the community is a more influential factor have also revealed a similar result where
for the consumers to acquire smartphone, design was found to be the most important
instead of the actual needs. This implies that determinant of new product sale success
marketing and promotion are effective [18]. Moreover, Crilly, Moultrie, and
influencers that shape the trend of Clarkson [19], have asserted that design is
smartphone market, and subsequently the tangible property of a product that
influence the purchase decision or intention critically influences consumer response and
of the consumers. In line with this product success.
justification, Taylor and Todd (1995) have According to the statistics, built-in Wi-
pointed out that the influencers from Fi adapter is the second most common
important ones and surroundings (i.e. specification that is important to consumers,
subjective norms) are important factors that and this is followed by computing power.
lead the intention and behavior. Crosstab analysis on the Wi-Fi adapter by
The crosstab analysis on the data shows age suggests that about 40% of the
35.6 % of the respondents who perceived consumers from all age groups equally
trend as a factor influencing their decision perceive Wi-Fi adapter as important to them,

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The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications, 2012 (ISSN: 2220-9085)

with exception of only approximately 19% there are more male consumers who tend to
of the consumers older than 57 years old perceive operating platform as an important
who perceive that Wi-Fi capability is criterion to be taken into account, than their
pertinent to them. The plausible explanation female counterparts. This assertion is
of this phenomenon could be due to the fact supported by the result that demonstrates the
that the consumers above 57 years old in respondents who agreed that operating
Malaysia are generally poor in English platform is important constitute 70% male
proficiency and not computer literate. Thus, respondents, whereas only 30% are female.
these situations have become obstacles to
Internet browsing. Their usage of mobile
phone is most probably limited to the
fundamental functions such as making voice
call.
Table 3. Importance of Device Specifications
Specifications Percentage
Design 56.0
Built-in Wi-Fi Adapter 38.5
Computing Power 34.2 Fig. 3. Crosstab Analysis of Design by Age
Price 30.2
Screen Size 28.5 Fig. 4 indicates a visible pattern that
Music Player and Formats 28.3 computing power of the Smartphone is
Simplicity 24.5 perceived to be more important by younger
Brand 22.2
age groups, compared to their older
counterparts. This might imply that younger
Battery Life 19.7
adults are particular about the computing
Operating Platform 12.3 power of smartphone as they are heavy users
Business Supports 8.4 of applications, games, flash contents, and
Other 2.7 media. Thus computing power is pertinent
for them to ensure smooth and pleasant
Surprisingly, only 30.2% of the total browsing experience. On the other hand,
respondents reported that price factor is a older consumers are less likely to use their
consideration in purchasing decision. This smartphone for gaming, flash contents, and
phenomenon could due to the fact that other CPU-hungry applications. Therefore,
smartphone is considered as durable computing power of the smartphone is less
merchandise, which can be used for years. critical to them.
Hence, the consumer might perceive the
design, features, and overall quality would
outweigh the price difference in the long
run. Previous study has also found that
consumer price sensitivity tends to be lower
towards other durable items [20].
Fig. 3 shows the percentage of
respondents who agreed that design is an
important factor, categorized by age groups.
The result demonstrates that design of
smartphone is less important to the older
consumers, compared to their younger Fig. 4. Corsstab Analysis of Computing Power by Age
counterparts. With regard to the operating
platform, the finding implies that generally

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The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications, 2012 (ISSN: 2220-9085)

5.7 Usage of Smartphones among different instant messaging clients

such as MSN, WhatsApp, and TalkBox.
This study has examined the pattern of Users may face difficulties to send instant
smartphone usage. The results are shown in message to users that use different client
applications. More importantly, instant
According to Table 4, the most common messaging is only feasible and practical if
usage of smartphone is still related to its the user has subscribed for unlimited data
core functionalities which are to make phone plan, or has access to the Wi-Fi connection.
call, and SMS. Interestingly, the 40 % of the Otherwise, the expensive data charge would
respondents have reported that they use outweigh the cost benefit of instant
smartphone for instant messaging daily. This messaging.
would imply that consumers no longer According to the data analysis,
solely depend on computer to send instant entertainment is another major type of
messages, but smartphone is another smartphone usage. Entertainment refers to
important platform for the consumers to the usage of music playing, movies, and
interact with others through instant games. Hence, the finding suggests that
messaging. As sending instant message is other than as a means of communication,
commonly free of charge, whereas sending smartphone is perceived by consumers as a
ordinary SMS will incur communication fee source of
Table 4. Usage Patterns of Smartphone
Few Times
Usage Daily Weekly Rarely Never
a week

Make a phone call 82.45% 12.10% 2.05% 2.83% 0.55%

Check e-mail 21.43% 17.32% 7.88% 17.05% 36.31%

Business 15.77% 11.94% 10.16% 21.32% 40.81%

Entertainment 26.54% 23.82% 12.49% Fig. 6. Frequency

20.04% of Accessing Website via Mobile
17.10%

Studying 18.54% 21.99% 12.27% 22.10% 25.10%

Browsing Web page 23.26% 18.38% 11.10% 20.77% 26.49%

SMS 85.23% 8.44% 2.44 2.11% 1.78%

Instant messaging 40% 16.55% 6.44% 14.27% 22.71%

GPS 11.16% 12.60% 8.55% 24.04% 43.64%

Read PDF/Word 10.77% 12.49% 8.72% 21.32% 46.70%

Others 14.32 3.22% 2.72% 7.61% 72.12%

for the consumers, this could be one of the entertainment or media.

reasons why instant messaging has become Interestingly, the finding indicates that
increasingly popular. Nonetheless, instant about 74% of the respondents have
messaging is more likely to act as experience of using their smartphone to
complimentary to conventional SMS, browse webpage, while 53% of the
instead of substitution of the SMS. This is respondents have use smartphone to browse
because incompatibility issues may occur webpage at least once a week. This number

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The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications, 2012 (ISSN: 2220-9085)

shows that mobile web browsing is Internet usage. With regard to this, it is
relatively common among the smartphone interesting to find out the acceptance of
users. blogging using smartphone. The finding as
Furthermore, about half of the shown in Fig. 7 indicates that blogging
consumers have never read documents or through smartphone is yet a common
PDF file on their smartphone. This may practice for users. About half (47%) of the
imply that although reading document is respondents have not tried to blog by using
technically feasible on smartphone, it is not their smartphones, whereas only 21 percent
practical enough to do so due to inefficiency of respondents do so on regular basis. The
and readability of the document due to the considerably low acceptance of this practice
limited screen space. It could suggest that may be due to inconvenience and
more efforts are needed to make the inefficiency in utilizing smartphone to write
document reading and editing task more a blog. Blogging can be done faster and
practical, effective, and efficient on the easier by using a computer. Previous study
smartphone device. has found that ease-of-use and usefulness
are the main factors that affect the utilization
5.8 Specific Usage of certain technologies [21, 22]. This study
extends the finding to the context of
As aforementioned, the understanding of the smartphone application software.
consumers‟ usage behaviors towards various
types of smartphone applications is
important as a yardstick to gauge the actual
utilization of these applications by the
consumers. This section presents the
respondents‟ attitude and behavior towards
Internet browsing, e-mail, games, and
blogging through smartphones.

5.8.1 Internet Browsing

Fig. 6 illustrates the frequency of using

smartphone to access the Internet. Overall, Fig. 7: Frequency of Blogging via Smartphone
about 75% of the respondents have
experiences of browsing the Internet using
their smartphones. This implies that
consumers in Malaysia are considerably 5.8.3 Gaming
opened to accept mobile Internet browsing.
Additionally, the crosstab analysis shows As mobile games are one of the major
that more male respondents (about 61%) market opportunities, it is paramount to
browse the Internet via smartphone than see the way consumers react and utilize
their female counterparts (about 39%). the mobile games. Fig. 8 shows that
mobile games have a higher acceptance
level among the respondents compared
to e-mail, in which approximately 84%
of the respondents have experience of
gaming via their smartphones.
5.8.2 Blogging Furthermore, as similar to the trend in
Internet browsing, the analysis also
Blogging have become a widely accepted indicates that male respondents play
communication means in the context of

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The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications, 2012 (ISSN: 2220-9085)

mobile games slightly more frequent marketing efforts; instead of actually

than their female counterparts. purchasing the device because of they need
for such applications, functions, and
features. It is important to emphasize the
importance of marketing strategy and
influences to the purchasing decision of
consumers in the context of smartphone
market.
This section discusses the main findings
of this study. The statistics show that
consumers from older age groups tend to be
not particular about the technical
Fig. 8 Frequency of playing game via Mobile specification of smartphone such as
operating platform, computing power, and
design. The plausible explanation would be,
older consumers focus on the core functions
6. DISCUSSION of mobile phone such as making phone call
and SMS. As long as the mobile phones
This study has revealed that selling price is
support the basic usage and priced
not the most important factor that affects
reasonably, they will go for the choice.
smartphone purchasing decision, whereas
Hence, it is suggested that the mobile phone
the consumers perceive other factors such as
targeted for older consumers can focus on
design, connectivity, and performance to be
the core functionality and concentrate less
more important than the price. This study
on the unnecessary features and frills. This
posits that smartphone is perceived by
would enable the product to be cost effective
consumers as durable item, which the price
and affordable to most of the consumers.
sensitivity is lower. Hence, the consumers
Moreover, the result of this study
are willing to pay more in the exchange of
suggests that the most attractive market for
better product quality and features. The
smartphones is consumers from younger age
manufacturer of smartphone should give
groups with purchasing power. Additionally,
more attention to the finest quality and
younger consumers, especially male would
features on their smartphone, while
pay more attention on the technical aspects
maintaining their selling price at a
of the smartphone such as computing
reasonable level in order to be ahead in the
powers, operating platform, and software
smartphone market. This is much reflected
applications. This is reasonable as younger
through the fact that nowadays it is common
smartphone users are often the consumers of
that the best-selling smartphone of a brand is
media and entertainment applications. Since
their high-end smartphones that are
these usages require high demand on
outstanding in their quality and
computing power, the younger consumers
specifications.
will pay attention to the performance of the
Interestingly, the report shows that
smartphone, in order to ensure smooth and
trends in the society have more influence
delightful experience.
than the actual needs in the purchasing
In terms of the usage, the findings
decision of a smartphone. In other words,
indicate that the “smartness” of smartphone
smartphone is not merely a commodity to
is yet to be fully exploited by the consumers.
fulfill the communication requirements, but
Most of the usages are entertainments,
smartphone would be an indicator of status,
instant messaging, Internet browsing, and
prestige, and lifestyle. For instance, there are
email. Other functions of the smartphone
great proportions of iPhone buyers who are
such as GPS, document editing, and
motivated by trend in the market, the
business related functions are not commonly
influence of friends and colleagues, and
utilized. It is suggested that proper redesign

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The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications, 2012 (ISSN: 2220-9085)

of the applications, user training, and user http://www.itu.int/ITU-

supports should be more prevalent in order D/ict/statistics/ict/index.html.
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