ASIANJOURNALOFMANAGEMENTRESEARCH

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MobilePhoneUsagePatternsamongIndianconsumerAnExploratory Study
SheetalSingla AssistantProfessor, DepartmentofBusinessStudies,Bhai GurdasInstituteofEngineering & Technology,Sangrur sheetalsingla@yahoo.com ABSTRACT Inrecentyears,theadoptionofmobilephoneshasbeenrapidsofastnotonlyinIndiabutalsoin thewholeworld.Owninga mobilephonewasconsidereda luxury inIndiatillthe late1990s. Howeverwiththereductioninservicecharges&thecostofhandsetsthenumberof mobileusers inIndiasoonincreased.Mobilephoneshavebecomeaneedthanafashionaccessory.Theaimof thestudyistoinvestigate&understandthebehaviorofconsumersofmobilephonesinLudhiana district&theSangrurDistrict.And furthercapturetheirsatisfaction levelthatis influenced by varioustechnical&nontechnicalfactors.Thestudyindicatesthatwhileprice&featuresarethe most influential factors affecting the purchase of a new mobile phone, its price, audibility, networkaccessibility,arealsoregardedasthemostimportantinthechoiceofthemobilephones. The prime objective of the study is to understand the difference in the importance given by different gender groups to the selected factors while buying mobile handsets. The study concludes57%ofmalehasgivenimportancetoQualityofmobilesfollowedbyprice,features, Brand&styleofmobiles. Keywords:MobileHandsets,GenderGroups,Consumerbehavior,Factors 1.Introduction
th India is the 12 largest consumer market in the world and it is expected to become the fifth largest economy in the world by 2025. There is an explosive growth in almost all the areas of consumer goods and services. Communication that accounts for 2 percent of consumers spendingtodaywillbeoneofthefastestexpandingcategorieswithgrowthofabout13percent (McKinsey, 2007).The growth in this sector has been improved due to liberalization of telecommunicationlawsandpolicies.Theconsumersofbothruralandurbanareas,fromcollege goingstudentstomatureelders,ofalmostallincomegroupshavestartedusingmobiletelecom services. According to a Gartner report, after China, India would be fastest growing mobile telephony market in Asia Pacific. Cellular penetration would increase to 38.6% in 2011 with 58%ofruralpopulationand95%ofurbanpopulationpossessingmobilephone.

The market will be driven by prepaid connections, which will account for more than 93% connections. The low rural mobile penetration of 2% represents an immense opportunity for cellular players. The call rates will further drop to become closer to fixedline rates, further lowering the entry barrier. Indian telecommunication Industry is one of the fastest growing ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH 594

telecom marketintheworld.Therearevariousplayers intheGSM market.Nokiawas leading the market with 59% market share (Prashant, 2005). The cut throat competition between manufacturershasforcedmanufacturerstoreducetheircostsandtherefore,theyarethinkingof manufacturing handsets in India. In recent years, the adoption of mobile phones has been exceptionally rapid in many parts of the world. India is the secondfastest growing major economy after China. The primary objective of this paper is to examine the importance of different factors affecting consumers motives related to mobile phone purchasing and to investigate the main reasons to change mobile phone. Although consumer motives underlying mobile phone acquisition are something one could call general knowledge, relatively little is known on the buying decision making process in relation to new mobile phone models packet with different properties (i.e., smart phones) allowing users to communicate in fresh ways. Telecommunication is rapidly changing the way people communicate with each other and organizationsconductbusinessesaroundtheworld.Themobilephoneindustryhasbeenoneof the fastest growing industries of recent times. At present, India has 287 million mobile phone usersandnearly1,15,000towerswhichemitelectromagneticradiations.Bytheendof2010,the numberofmobilephoneusersisestimatedtoriseto500million.1,2Mobilephonesaccountfor 88% of all telecommunication users and the rural sector accounts for more than 25% of all wireless phone users1 and this proportion is bound to grow as the access and affordability of mobilephonescontinuestoincrease. 2.TelecomSectorinIndia Indiahascomeinaclosesecondinthesaleofmobilephonesintheyear2006.Chinahasledthe raceofmobilesalesbeingthehighestintheworld.InIndiahowevertheGSMphonesruleover theCDMAhandsets.LeadingthecategoriesareNokia,Samsung,SonyEricksonwhileReliance takesalargesizeshareinthecorporatesegment.SubscribersinIndiaarebaskinginthegloryof theeverincreasingnumberofsubscriberpatronage.Theywanttobeseenwithbetterhandsetsas there is a quaint feeling that the mobile should match the designation or just make a status statement with a smart and expensive phone. Hence with such attitudes ruling the market everyonewantstostandoutwiththehandsettheyown.MobilePhoneshaveahugemarketinthe world and especially in India. The sharks in this system like Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, Vodafone etc. continuously introduced latest Mobile Phone models at regular intervalsinordertokeepthesmallerfishesawareoftheirsuperiorityinthebusiness.Therange of accessories available for each handset caters to the demands of all kinds of users. With the rising living standards, manyMobilePhoneStoreshavecomeup inIndiathatofferstheentire rangeavailablealongwithspecialoffersandfreegifts.TheMobilephonesaleshavetoucheda newhigheversincetheintroductionoftechnologieslikeCamera,Games,polyphonicRingtones, extendablememoriesintheformofMemoryCards,VideoRecording,Bluetooth,WiFi,GPRS etc Mobile Phones Games have captured the interests of youngsters and adults alike. Many peopleareactuallyaddictedtothem.Thelargeandbulkygamingdeviceshavereducedtoeither handheldvideogamesthatarecertainlypassortheplaystationsthatarewaytooexpensive. Attheendof20052006,therewere90millionmobilesubscribersinIndiaincomparisonto50 million subscribers for landlines. The main aim of this paper is to estimate future trends and analyze the pattern and rate of adoption of mobile phones in India. Consequently, the mobile subscriber base is projected to increase from 90 million in 20052006 to 433 million in 2010 2011andnearly900millionin20152016.Theprojectedrapidgrowthinthemobilesubscriber

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base will have important implications for future plans of mobile operators, infrastructure providers,handsetsuppliersandvendors. 3.LiteratureReview Ingeneral,behaviorisapersonsfeelingofpleasureordisappointmentresultingfromcomparing aproductsperceivedperformanceinrelationtohisorherexpectation.Ifperformancematches theexpectation,customer issatisfied& ifperformanceexceedstheexpectation,thecustomer is highlydelighted.(kotler2002).Theotherresearchersdefineconsumerbehaviorassatisfyingthe needs &desiresofconsumers(Besterfield1994).Duringrecent years,thetelephone coverage anditsstructureinFinlandhaveundergoneadramaticchange,mainlyasaconsequenceofrapid increaseinthepopularityofthemobilephone.Thenumberofmobilephoneshasincreasedsince the first half of the 1990s while the number of conventional, fixed phones has decreased simultaneously.Theproportionofhouseholdswithmobilephonesonlyhasalsobeenincreasing sincethemid1990s(KuuselaandVikki,1999).TheGuardianreportedastudyin2005,which found that stateoftheart mobile phones have been found to be effective tools for tempting young unemployed adults back to learning. In 2005 Child Wise, a market research firm specializinginchildren'sproducts,foundthatoneinfourundereightshadamobile.Thetotalof 4.5millionyoungsterswithmobilesincluded58%ofnineto10yearoldsand89%of11to12 yearoldswithhandsets.Some93%of13to14yearoldsand95%of15and16yearoldshada mobile.(DailyMail,15February2005).06June2006ArecentstudybyNokiafinds,perhaps unsurprisingly, that people want and, indeed, expect more from their mobile phones than just phone calls. According tothe survey, 44% use their mobile as their primary camera, and 72% saythattheirmobilehasrenderedtheiralarmclockobsoleteastheyrelyontheirphonetowake themup.StudiesbytheInternational.Aliteraturereviewservestofocusresearchproblemsand to understand current academic thinking and theoretical models around a research topic. It is a descriptionaswellasacriticalreviewofthe literature.(Saunders,LewisandThornhill,2001). Technologicalprogress inthesphereof informationandcommunication isencouragingtheuse anddevelopmentofnewshoppingmethods,leadingtoarapidgrowthinnonstoreshoppingas the individual can buy products/services without having to travel to retail outlets (Sharma and Sheth2004Thompson1997). 4.Objectivesofthestudy 1. Tostudythebehaviorofconsumerstowardscellularphones. 2. Findoutpreferencesofconsumersinmobilehandsetsatthetimeofpurchase. 3. Findoutthesatisfaction&dissatisfactionlevelofconsumers&reasonsforthat. 5.ResearchMethodology Thestudywasconducted.Thestudyisbasedonprimarydataobtainedthroughawelldesigned questionnaire.Thequestionnairewasadministeredtousers&nonusersofcellularphones.For thepurposeofthestudyconsumersareaskedtoratethefivehandsetpurchasemotivators(price, quality, style, features, and brand) on 5 point Likerts scale for mobile phone.Extremely Important5,SomewhatImportant4,NeitherImportant3,SomewhatUnimportant2,Extremely Unimportant1.

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Thestudy Thestudywillbeexploratoryinnaturewithsurveymethodbeingusedtocompletethestudy. Samplingunit Customer on the basis of age, gender, income, occupation, education in Ludhiana & Sangrur District. Samplingsize 500RespondentsinLudhianaDistrict&500RespondentsinSangrurDistrict. Toolsusedfordataanalysis Stratified Random Sampling & Appropriate statistical tool to be applied to interpret data like Testofsignificance,Chisquaretest. Samplingarea LudhianaDistrict&SangrurDistrict Toolsusedfordatacollection Self designed questionnaire was used to compare both the districts. Data was collected on a seven points Likert type scale where one indicates minimum agreement & seven indicate maximumagreement. DataAnalysis Forthepurposeofthestudyboththerural&urbansampleswillbeaskedtorate5mobilephone motivatorsi.e.(Price,Quality,style, functions,Brand)on5pointLikertScale.TheChiSquare TestisusedforAnalysis. 6.DataAnalysis Themobilephoneshaveahugeimpactuponthestudentcommunity.Theuseofthesegadgetsby the youth has been in different ways. It is high time for us to be aware of the tastes and preferences of the youth towards the mobile phone games. For the purpose of the study respondents are asked to rate 5 mobile phone motivators i.e. (Price, Quality, style, functions, Brand) on 5 point Likert Scale for mobile phones : (5)Extremely Important, (4) Somewhat Important,(3)NeitherImportantnorUnimportant,(2)Somewhatunimportant,(1)Extremely Unimportant. For the purpose of testing Hypothesis, the scores are averaged & standard deviationiscalculated.

7.Findings&Discussion

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1. 50.19%peoplebelongtoLudhianacityand49.81%peoplebelongtoSangrurcity. 2. InLudhiana City,51.38%people liketouseNokiaHandset,13.03%people liketouse SamsungMobiles,10.53%peopleliketouseSonyEricssonmobiles,9.52%peoplelike touseLGmobiles,7.27%peopleliketouseTatamobiles,and8.27%peopleliketouse othermobiles. 3. Out of my whole sample, 37.74% people are servicemen, 32.08% people are businessmen, 8.93% people are students & 21.25% people belong to some other occupationlikeagricultureetc. 4. 72.08%aremales,27.92%arefemales. 5. InLudhiana,Ifound27.57%respondentsboughtmobileduetoDemoeffect&50.63% respondents bought mobile due to necessity. In Sangrur, 38.38% respondents bought mobileduetoDemoeffect,35.86%respondentsboughtmobileduetonecessity. 6. In Ludhiana, 39.85% respondents prefer Bar type mobile, 22.56% like Flip mobile handsets, 25.81% like Slider handsets & 4.26% like Phones with Swivel look. But in Sangrur40.40%respondentspreferBartype mobile,20.96%like Flip mobile handsets, 28.28%likesliderHandsets,4.04%likePhoneswithSwivellook. 7. The satisfaction level of users was analyzed on a five point scale ranging from 'not satisfied' to 'fully satisfied'. Only 14 percent of the consumers say that they are fully satisfiedwiththeservices,while6percentrespondedas'notsatisfied'.Amajorgroupof consumers either say that they are 'almost satisfied' (43%) or 'average satisfied' (20%). 'Verylesssatisfied'plus'notsatisfied'combinedtogethercomesto20percentofthetotal consumers. 8. The majorreasonscited fordissatisfactionarepoorqualityofsignals(42%)andhigher costs(38%).Poorqualityofsignalsmeansunavailabilityofsignals,callfailure,calldrop downsetc.Only4percentcomplaintsaboutbillingerrorswhile9percentarenothappy with the quality of customer care services being provided. Many respondents cited multiplereasonsfordissatisfaction. 9. 77% percent of the sampled consumers receive unsolicited calls while only seventeen percent of it feel happy on getting such calls. Outof the consumer who gets such calls twentythreepercentstays indifferenttosuchcallswhilethirtypercentacceptsthatthey getdisturbedandfeelirritated.Sixpercentgetsveryangryonreceivingunsolicitedcalls. 8.Conclusions Themostterriblethingabouthavingacellphoneisthatnomatterhowgoodtheserviceprovider claimsservice,therearestillplacesyourphonewouldnotworkorwill cutoutonyou.However, IndianMarkethasstillnotreachedtoitssaturationlevel,butithastostillmakeinroadsinrural areas. Companies should divert their attention to rural areas to cater to the rural market. Governmentshouldalsoprovidethecompaniessecureenvironmentsothattheyshouldinvestin India.Thiswillultimatelybenefittheconsumer.Inordertoutilizetheimmensepotentialinrural ASIANJOURNALOFMANAGEMENTRESEARCH 598

orsemiurbanmarketIndia,companiesneedtomakemarketingstrategies&actionplansinsuch a way that are able to influence consumers behavior. Marketing can succeed by adopting integratedstrategiesbycompanies. 9.References 1. Anand&Hundal,B.S.(2007).Motivatorsforthepurchaseofdurablesforrural&urban consumersofPOunjab:Acasestudy.TheICFAIJournalofManagementResearch,7. 2. V S Ramaswamy and S Namakumari, Marketing Management, (Macmillan India Ltd. NewDelhi2006) 3. Balaji Sathya Narayanan (2007). Rural marketing. the road for sustainable growth. MarketingMastermind,8(5),pp 2224 4. Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing CommunicationsPerspective,(6th:NewYork:NY:McGrawHill.2004) 5. Cooper Donald, R. & Schindler Pamela, S. (2006).Marketing Research Concepts & Cases.NewDelhi,India:TataMcGrawHillPublishingCompanyLimited. 6. D.Mercer,Marketing(Blackwell,1996)'BehaviorofBuyer'(T.Ocean1998) 7. Engel,J.,Kollatt,D.andBlackwell,R.'ConsumerBehavior'(DrydenPress,1978) 8. J. S. Panwar, Beyond Consumer Marketing, (Response Books A division of Sage publications,NewDelhi2004) 9. Karunakaran, K. (2007). Rural Marketing. In Dr. Karunakaran, K., Marketing Management(1sted).(pp.277292)MumbaiIndia:HimalayaPublishingHouse. 10. PKotler,et.al.,MarketingManagement,( PearsonPrenticeHall,NewDelhi2007)

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