The smartphone market is expected to grow fast exceptionally even amid worldwide economic depression. Smartphones have unexpectedly been well received since their appearance on the market, which will bring a change to the related industries and market...
The smartphone market is expected to grow fast exceptionally even amid worldwide economic depression. Smartphones have unexpectedly been well received since their appearance on the market, which will bring a change to the related industries and markets. The penetration of smartphones is going to increase though the phones have just been introduced, and smartphones have a PC-like functionality, which is totally different from existing mobile phones. The unique characteristic of smartphones is that it's possible to insert new applications in the smartphones along with the emergence of new technology, which is the major difference between smartphones and existing mobile phones. One of the major points to determine the purchase of consumer is how many applications can be installed in a smartphone.
As the spread of smartphones are contingent on diverse consumer needs, it's needed to keep track of changing consumer psychology and needs. Lately, consumer needs keep changing under the influence of increasingly complicated and diversified environmental factors such as economic, social and cultural circumstances, and the market is being more segmented in response to consumer needs. Given a recent trend in propensity to consume marked by practical, rational and emotional consumption and colonies consumption, personal consumer characteristics should be taken into account when it comes to the innovative service of smartphones.
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of the innovative service of smartphones and personal consumer characteristics to receptive attitude in a bid to give some suggestions about what the industry should focus on in order to accelerate the spread of smartphones and what could be of use to both service providers and receivers.
After earlier studies of personal characteristics, mobile service and the reception and spread of innovation were reviewed, innovativeness and appropriateness were selected as the personal attributes to affect receptive attitude. Image and possibility of observation were selected as social influence factors, and the selected innovative service variables were real-time, reach and reality. A survey was conducted on people in general who owned new smartphones, existing smartphones or mobile phones in order to verify the research model. And a regression analysis was carried out to look for any possible significant correlation or influential relationship among the factors.
The findings of the study were as follows:
First, the innovative service characteristics that involved real-time, reach and reality had a positive impact on receptive attitude. Out of the three, reality was far more chosen than the other two, which implied that communication presence and visual immersion were two of major factors to receive innovative service. It denotes that consumers are more likely to use the innovative service when they find those factors to be more linked to their life pattern.
Second, innovativeness and image that were respectively one of the personal attributes and social influence factors didn't affect receptive attitude in a significant manner. It means that personal innovative disposition and tendency to view the use of the innovative smartphone service as a privilege or a barometer of social standing didn't exert a great influence on receptive attitude. In contrast, the users took a more favorable view of the innovative service of smartphones when they found it easier to use a smartphone like existing media, when they considered it to be more appealing to their sensitivity, and when they had more expectations for new things. It seemed to indicate that the consumers got more smart and clever in today's society characterized by the rapid advance in technology and prevailing information-based value consumption.
Third, the personal attributes impacted on receptive attitude in a more favorable manner than the social influence. It signified that the consumers considered their own personal disposition more important than surrounding circumstances or people around in terms of the reception of the innovative smartphone service. This is a good example to show a shift of value toward an egocentric society.
This study is meaningful in that it attempted to identify the innovative service characteristics of new smartphones, which were differentiated from the characteristics of existing smartphones, in order to determine their attributes, and another meaning of the study is that an experimental psychosocial analysis was made over personal characteristics. But this study has a limitation. The scope of the study was confined to receptive attitude since the innovative service of smartphones were just in the rudimentary stage. So more research efforts should be directed into purchase intention and satisfaction level.
Service providers and related companies should make efforts to keep track of consumer characteristics linked to the use of the innovative service of smartphones that isn't yet universalized. That will make it possible to predict on which characteristics of the innovative service they should focus in order to raise awareness among consumers of the innovative service of smartphones and accelerate the spread of the phones.