Analysis of functional aspects of Mobile Handsets among college-going students

Presented by: Nisha jacob-A02 Shweta Bhardwaj-A05 Alaap Batra-A26 Ruchi Gupta-A55 Vivek Yadav-Absent

Introduction
India has emerged as the fastest growing Mobile Handset market in the world Indian mobile market Dominated by youngsters(32)% Ubiquitous acceptance is due toI. Favorable govt. policies II. Development of small handsets III. Fall in handset prices IV. Commercialization of pre-paid subscriptions It is no more a rich mans accessory This paper throws light on functional aspects of having a mobile set and reasons of purchase and attributes that college goers look for.

 Understanding the youths preference is a pre-requisite for the mobile manufacturers to create competitive advantages Paper also focuses on the factors that motivate youth to own

a mobile handset.
Data was collected from a sample of 208 handset owners aged between 20-29 yrs

Findings : There exists a significant difference in the importance

of the reasons(ease of use), purpose and that of attributes (SMS, calendar) of handset between two groups of youngsters(High and Low group)

Telecom industry
Global Scenario Sale of mobile phones have surpassed the expectations Matured markets- U.S, Germany & Japan (25%) Low penetration rate- Latin America, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, China , India According to Gartner India, China, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil will account for 50% of new market Indian Scenario Rapid transition since telecom policy 1994 Private players were allowed to provide basic telephone services In 1996, wireless telephony was also liberalized

INDIA- Emerging mobile handset market

Worth of the market Rs.72,000 cr Market share of major manufacturers- Nokia(31.20%) Motorola(19.20) Samsung(10.90%) LG elec.(7.20%) Siemens(6.90%) Others(24.60%) According to indiainfoline.com- telecom statistics showcased a high rise in the percentage of mobile users over fixed lines in India (40.8mn t0 177.7mn in 2007) This is a testimony to the increasing preferences of Indian consumers for mobile handsets.

Youth- A large market segment in India

It is an immensely huge market segment for most of the products Census 2001 figures: 54% of population is below the age of 25, much more than the population of Latin America and the Caribbean India has the edge of a near stable share of youth in the range of 34.7%(1990) to 34%(2020), which is an advantage not enjoyed by any other country As Indian population gets younger, consumption patterns are changing fast Todays tech savvy youth constitutes 32% of the total mobile users in the country using mobile for different utilities. Few studies on these functional aspects exists.

LITERATURE REVIEW

What motivates youngsters to own a handset

1. Noble (1987) identified two broad factors- social and task-oriented. For using landline, social uses being more frequent than utilitarian uses. 2. Leung and Wei (2000) found that main drivers for owning a handset Social- status, sociability, relaxation Instrumental- mobility, immediate access Instrumental motives were stronger than social.

3. Grant & ODonohoe (2007) proposed five factorsconvenient entertainment, social stimulation, experiential learning and purchase information.

Functional Aspects
1. Ling & Yttri (2002) observed that handsets are used by young people mainly to coordinate activities and to organize a range of interactions. Physical aspects, design, storage and visual aspects are important. 2. Kasesniemi and Rautiainen (2002) found message collection, circulation of chain messages and collective reading and writing the messages were abundantly performed by young people. 3. Skong (2002) observed that- important factors which youngsters look in handsets are- color, design, performance, ringtones, ease of use, logo and brand and differed from one another in underlining importance the functional utility. 4. Wilska (2003) observed that youth used mobile handsets for both calling and messaging

5. Nurvitadhi (2003) found that The most important aspect of mobile is that it is useful anywhere, and in case of emergency. Many unconventional features, such as email, music playing function, and information service are becoming popular. Primarily use for making phone calls.

6. Patel (2011) studied mobile phone usage habits of students commuting from rural areas to nearby town an exploratory study in Gujarat
Family income and gender were not influential factors. Most used feature- SMS because its cheaper and effective. Purpose- staying in touch and discussing study related matter.

Research Objectives
To find out the reasons for owning mobile handsets. To find out if there is any significant difference in the buying behavior between two groups of youngsters 1) Who value functional factors as high. 2) Who value functional factors low.

Research Methodology and Data Collection

Primary data Structured questionnaire Sample size: 208 Convenience sampling Participants: Students studying in a college in Hyderabad. Factor analysis, Independent sample t-test.

Factor Analysis
Allows us to describe many variables using a few factors. Helps us to put sample into categories depending on their factor scores.

Rotated Factor Matrix

Factors Social Factors Items Everyone around me has one It entertains me when I wish to It integrates me with the world My parents or friends asked me to have one Functional Factors It makes me easily accessible to everyone Factor Loadings 0.82 0.69 0.62 0.57

0.81

It is a better and more convenient medium to send or receive messages

0.68

Testing of Hypothesis
Independent Sample t-tests were performed to compare mean values of the two groups. Ho: o = 1, H1: o = 1

If the p value is less than the significance value then the Null Hypothesis (Ho) is rejected

Reasons to Buy
Ho: There is No Significant Difference between the two groups in reasons for purchase of the mobile handset. H1 : There is a Significant Difference between the two groups in reasons for purchase of the mobile handset.

Importance of Attributes
Ho: There is No Significant Difference between the two groups in the importance attached to attributes of the mobile handset. H1: There is a Significant Difference between the two groups in the importance attached to attributes of the mobile handset.

REASONS TO BUY A MOBILE HANDSET

Price (56%) Ease of Use

Ease of Use (54%)

Durability (66%) Physical Appearance Physical Appearance (43%) Battery Life (61%) Brand Name Brand Name (51%)

Attributes of Mobile Handsets influencing College Going Students

Most Important Attributes Color Screen Design Storage Capacity Alarm Clock Camera Bluetooth or Infrared SMS Calendar Calculator Least Important Attributes MMS Microsoft Office Voice Recorder Video Recorder

EASE OF USE

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Low Group 4.26

High Group 4.53

Low Group 4.17

High Group 4.46

Since p value (0.012) is less than 0.05, we reject Ho. Low Group does not consider Ease Of Use as an important reason to buy mobile handset as the High Group does. BRAND NAME Low Group 4.25 Low Group 4.47

Since p value (0.016) is less than 0.05, we reject Ho. Low Group does not consider Physical Appearance as an important reason to buy mobile handset as the High Group does.

Since p value (0.051) is more than 0.05, we cannot reject Ho Both Groups consider Brand Name as an important reason, but it should play a more important role for Low group than High Group in buying a mobile.

FINDINGS
Students who use mostly use their mobile phones to keep in touch with others through voice calls and SMSs would prefer those handsets which are easy to use. Mobile manufacturers should design products with better user interface to target this segment of customers. Physical Appearance of the handset should also be considered to target the same category. Eg: Qwerty Phones and Touch Screens Mobile manufacturers should differentiate their products from others and create awareness through advertisement campaigns and build a BRAND NAME for their product.

Mobile Handsets are increasing becoming a status symbol and has transformed into a multi-purpose communication and entertainment device.
Eg: Blackberry and Apple Smart-phones

SMS

CALENDAR

CALCULATOR

Low Group 4.22

Low Group 4.61

Low Group 3.42

Low Group 3.75

Low Group 3.37

Low Group 3.77

Since p value (0) is less than 0.05, we reject Ho.

Since p value (0.029) is less than 0.05, we reject Ho.

Since p value (0.010) is less than 0.05, we reject Ho.

Hence we can say that the Low Group does not consider these three attributes as important as the High Group when it comes to buying a mobile handset.

FINDINGS
Calendar and Calculators are not considered as important as SMS. College Students want to keep in constant touch with their friends through SMS. Low Group may give more importance to other factors such Design, Storage Capacity which make their mobile handsets special and unique.

CONCLUSIONS
Mobile phones are significantly extended its purpose from a mere voice

communication tool into a multi-purpose communications device. College going Students are influenced by both Social and Functional Factors. They buy a mobile for more than one reason. These students can be split into two groups on the basis of the importance given to functional factors. Identification of differences within students help the mobile manufactures to design their products catering to their various needs. The variation in the purchase of handsets is based on importance given to different attributes.