IMPACT OF MOBILE-PHONE ON PEOPLE’S LIFE

Abstract
The mobile-phone market has changed from a new purchase market to a replacement market when it
imatured. At the same time smartphones come into the spotlight as an alternative of feature phones in the
mobile-phone market. Since the characteristics of ‘smartphones’ are greatly different from those of ‘feature
phones’ in that more technologies are incorporated and more functionalities are provided with users by
smartphones, factors that can affect the adoption of smartphones and feature phones might not be the same.
With all the importance of market change from feature phones to smartphones, most of the previous research
on smartphones has been conducted on the assumption that smartphone is used as a specialized tool for a
particular purpose, such as smartphones for logistics or smartphones for medical use. However, more and
more consumers adopt smartphones as a tool for general use in their everyday life, it is worth emphasizing
more on general consumers, which regard smartphone as a next-generation product of feature phone.

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact that distraction by interruptions from an
electronic, hand-held device (i.e., a smart phone) had on couples’ feelings of connectedness during a dyadic
interaction through experimental and correlational analyses. The study addressed three experimental
hypotheses: that couples who were frequently distracted by a cell phone would report lower intimacy ratings
than couples who discussed problems without interruption, that couples in the experimental group would
report less satisfaction in their communication compared to the couples in the control group, and that
couples in the experimental group would report lower levels of commitment to each other than couples in
the control group. Through correlational data, a fourth hypothesis was that both excessive as well as
problematic use of cell phones would be associated with lower relationship satisfaction.
Introduction
The mobile-phone market maintained rapid growth until 2002, at which point the growth rate of the
mobile phone is considered to have reached maturity in the market1. Since then, the focus has been on
mobile-phone replacement rather than first-time purchase, and the profile of buyers is changing. These
changes and the increasing deployment of the smartphone have affected the mobile-phone market, and the
general consumer interest in the smartphone is growing. In the mobile industry, there is no clear industry-
standard definition of smartphone, but generally, the PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and the general
mobile phone combine the functions of various applications, using the Internet and the portable PC. These
smartphones have been the attractive devices for various users. Mobile phones are classified according to
their features, and a clear definition of each is under review23. This study will use the feature phone as the
term to describe mobile phones that are not smartphones.

According to the Fortune sit, a US business magazine, the researching group called IDC said that the
global market of smartphones increased about fifty-six percent in 2010 (54.7 million from last year’s 34.9
million). In addition, new sales will reach sixty percent in 2014, according to Pyramid Research. This
estimates the cumulative share of smartphones in 2009 in excess of 16.3 percent, which means the
smartphone market is growing at a rapid pace. These changes in the mobile phone market and the increasing
deployment of smartphones are remarkable. It is crucial for sellers to understand the diffusion process of the
increasingly popular smartphone to establish customers—including both potential customers and current
users—and to understand the required next steps in marketing the smartphone.

Much research has been conducted from the customers’ perspective to analyze the diffusion of the
smartphone, but there have been various limitations in such research. First, most of the previous research on
smartphones assumed that the smartphone would be used as a specialized tool for a particular purpose, such
as for logistics or medical use. Smartphone that was monopolized by business man and early adopter is
diffused throughout the general consumer, and it has increased to meet a growing consumer demand for
multimedia and game and so On.. People who use smartphones for work will have different purposes than
the general buyer, however. Therefore, these previous studies were limited in their reflection of the views of
smartphone users. Second, previous research used experts’ opinion in analyzing customers’ buying decision

1
R. Ferber (1974)., Handbook of Marketing Research, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company [19] J. H. Myers and M. I. Aplert
(1968), Determinant Buying Attitude: Meaning and Measurement, Journal of Marketing, 32(4), 13-20
2
S. Taylor, and P. A. Todd (1995), Understanding Information Technology Usage: A Test of Competing Models, Information
System Research, 6(2), 144-176
2 W. L. Wilkie and E.A. Pessemier (1973), Issues in Marketing Use of Multi-Attitude Models, Journal of Marketing Research,
10(11), 428-441
process. In the early stages of introducing the smartphone to customers, expert opinion is very important to
promote smartphones and to establish marketing strategies. However, it is necessary to direct a study to
customers’ comments when smartphones are sold to the general consumer.

Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze factors in the purchase decision of smartphone for
mobile-phone users, considering the market change from feature phones to smartphones. Smartphone is
information system included various features. To achieve this purpose, we adopted TAM, which is fit for the
acceptability assessment in the information system development. To achieve this purpose, we adopted TAM,
which is one of the most popular methods for analyzing the acceptability of new technology. In this study,
primary attributes for applying TAM were derived from survey and twelve hypotheses in the model were
established from the existing literature on mobile phones and internets that are the basic technologies in
smartphones. Finally, these hypotheses were verified by SEM (Structural Equation Model), which will help
understand the characteristics of the potential market for smartphones. The research results are expected to
ultimately support the diffusion of smartphones, the design of new products, and the development of
marketing strategies in the mobile-phone market [10].

The remainder of this paper consists of five parts. First, Section 2 explains the basics of TAM and
various functional attributes of smartphones that are used to develop a TAM in this research. Then, Section
3 describes the overall research process, after which the first survey results to establish the research model
and second survey results to verify the model by empirical analysis are summarized in Section 4 and Section
5. Finally, this paper concludes with discussions and closing remarks in Section6.

Literature Review
1 Technology Acceptance Model
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was proposed for explaining and predicting consumer
acceptance of an information system, and it is designed specifically to interpret the acceptance process of
information technologies . The original TAM consists of five components, which include perceived
usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), attitude toward using, behavioral intention (BI) to use, and
actual system use. TAM assumes that whether to adopt a particular technology is determined by two key
factors: PU and PEOU for the technology (see Figure 1). Here, PU is defined as the degree to which a
person believes that using a particular technology would enhance his or her job performance, while PEOU is
defined as the degree to which a person believes that using a particular technology would be free of effort.
On the other hand, BI is defined as future behavior of individuals, which entails subjective probability as it
relates to actual behavior Actual behavior is the determinant factor in taking specific action, and BI relates to
actual behavior. Subsequent research concludes that the attitude variable has weak predictors of BI.4
Consequently, much of the subsequent research that used TAM omitted the attitude variable.

Figure 1. The concept of basic TAM

2 Functional attributes of the smartphone

A product consists of functional attributes that meet personal needs, such as satisfaction and
expectation etc. Each consumer accepts different functional attributes If a consumer does not receive
satisfaction from the influential functional attributes, he or she will not use the product. In addition, a
consumer estimates the value of functional attributes of the productcompared to that of other products to
decide what product to use. Therefore, it is important to derive influential functional attributes. To identify
functional attributes of the smartphone, this study focused on two relevant technologies and reviewed their
functional attributes.
The first technology is wireless Internet. As mobile communication technology has developed,
people have become able to use Internet services at any time, no matter where they are. Because the
smartphone provides the wireless Internet function, which is a distinguishing feature compared to the feature
phone, a variety of services have been activated, and the market has grown.
In a similar way, wireless Internet technology has developed with the development of smart phones.
Therefore, functional attributes of wireless Internet should be considered in identifying those of smartphone.
The second relevant technology is the mobile service technology, whose representative characteristics are
portability and mobility. The development of mobile services will result in more widespread use of the
smartphone. In addition, mobile convergence, which enables customer to use a variety of features and
services in various types of equipments such as smart phones, will lead to the development of mobile service
technology. Therefore, the functional attributes of mobile services are associated with those of the
smartphone.

Mobile Phone Addiction Symptoms among Adolescents

In one of the earliest relevant studies, Bianchi and Phillips (2005)5argued that the problem of mobile
phone use may be a symptom of an impulse control deficit or depression. Addressing the underlying
problem as well as inappropriate mobile phone use, they used some dependent variables to predict mobile

5
Bianchi A, Phillips J. Psychological predictors of problem mobile phone use. Cyber Psychology and Behavior. 2005; 8(1):39-51.
phone addiction, such as reported time per week spent simply using the device problem use, reported
percentage of use socially based, and reported percentage of business-based use. Other variables were also
considered including reported percentage of use in other features. The results indicated that the
technological addictions offer an appropriate starting point for a consideration of problem mobile phone use.
The results also revealed that young people, in particular, appear to be susceptible to high use and problem
use. They were the heaviest users of the SMS function and other features of mobile phones. Ross (2011)
found that three characteristics of mobile phone addiction, the first is that people who are addicted to mobile
phone always keep their mobile phones on.
The second is that they tend to use their mobile phones even when they have a land-line phone at
home. Finally, they normally are confronted with financial and social difficulties due to their excessive
mobile phone use. James and Drennan (2005) V6carried out research on Australian university students'
mobile phone use and discovered a large use rate of 1.5-5 hours a day. Their findings showed a range of
characteristics associated with addictive use. These were: impulsiveness, mounting tension prior to using the
device, failure of control strategies and withdrawal symptoms. The results also identified some factors that
correlated with consumer engagement in addictive or compulsive behavior. Situational factors affecting
excessive use included special events, alcohol abuse and depressive circumstances.
A wide range of other negative consequences from mobile phone addiction among consumers
included financial issues, damaged relationships, emotional stress and falling literacy. Park (2005) asked
respondents to report their minutes of mobile phone use and divided them into light user who reported less
than nine minutes of use and heavy user who reported more than nine minutes of use. Respondents who
reported less than nine minutes of use were considered “light” users, while respondents who reported more
than nine minute of use were considered “heavy” users. Mobile phone addictionwas measured based on
seven criteria of dependency. These were: tolerance, withdrawal, unintended use, cutting down, time spent,
displacement of other activities and continued use.
The results showed that mobile phone users grew tolerant of mobile phones despite the fact that they
might cause such problems as high phone bills and public annoyance. Also, when the mobile phone was
unavailable for a time, users became highly anxious and irritated. This behavior continued although these
were troubling signs of addiction.

Assessment of Mobile Phone Addiction

Only a few validated scales are currently available for researchers and clinicians. As a consequence, many
published studies have investigated problematic use of the mobile phone by using their own pooled items
(e.g., Billiexu et al. 2007; Ha JH, et al. 2008; Sanchez and Otero 2009)7, which, among other issues, raises
problems in replicating results. There is thus a real need to translate and diffuse the available validated

6
James D, Drenn J. Exploring addictive consumption of mobile phone. Journal of Adolescence. 2005; 27(1):87-96
7
Sánchez-Martínez M, Otero A. Factors associated with cell phone use in adolescents in the community of Madrid (Spain).
Cyberpsychol Behav 2009; 12(2):131-7.
instruments. One of the most used among them isMobile Phone Problem Use Scale (MPPUS) (Bianchi and
Phillips, 2005)8. The MPPUS is an unifactorial 27-itemquestionnaire inspired by the addiction literature,
which covers issues such as tolerance, withdrawals, escape from other problems, craving and negative
consequences upon daily life (at social, familial, professional and financial levels). The items are scored
with a 10-point Likert scale, allowing dimensional rather than categorical (i.e., “yes” or “no”) responses.
The MPPUS was administered in several studies and can be considered a useful tool to assess a global score
of mobile phone addiction. Other comparable unidimensional tools have been developed by Toda, et al.
(2004) [54] Mobile Phone Dependence Questionnaire (MPDQ), and Walsh, et al. (2010)9
Mobile Phone Involvement Questionnaire including scales based on diagnostic criteria (inspired by
the substance abuse nosography). Mobile phone use was nevertheless shown to imply various types of
dysfunctional behaviors and adverse consequences, raising the need to develop multidimensional measures.
Currently, the only validated multidimensional scaleis the Problematic Mobile Phone Use Questionnaire
(PMPUQ) (Billieux, et al. 2008) [10]. The PMPUQ is a 30-item questionnaire that measures four distinct
facets of problematic mobile phone use. Each item is assessed on a 4- point Likertscale, allowing dimensional
answers. The constructs measured by the PMPUQ are the following:
(1) Dangerous use, defined as the tendency to use the mobile phone while driving;
(2) Prohibited use, defined as the tendency to use the mobile phone in banned places;
(3) Dependence symptoms, based on features of addictive behaviors (e.g., loss of control, occurrence of
negative effect in situations or contexts in which the use of the mobile phone is not possible or allowed); and
(4) financial problems, which reflect the extent to which mobile phone use resulted in tangible financial
problems (this latter subscale can be considered a measure of negative outcome in daily life). Finally,
attempts have been made to develop scales that specifically focus on the assessment of problematic use of
SMS by Rutland, et al. (2007) SMS Problem Use.

Negative Impact of Mobile Phone on Adolescents

The Orissa government (September 16 2008) announced that it has banned the use of mobile phones
in college campuses. “The mobile phones are found to be a disturbing element in college campus. Therefore,
we have banned it in the campus,” said higher education minister Samir Dey, adding that the order would be
implemented in both government and nongovernment colleges across the state. In the first instance of its
kind in the country, Gujarat Government has banned use of mobile phones in schools and colleges, saying it
was affecting educational activities in the institutes. A resolution to this effect was passed by the state
education department on Saturday 2008. Teenagers who excessively use their cell phone are more prone to
disrupted sleep, restlessness, stress and fatigue. 58% of Asians, which includes Indians, have comprised to

8
Bianchi A, Phillips J. Psychological predictors of problem mobile phone use. Cyber Psychology and Behavior. 2005; 8(1):39-51.
9
Walsh SP, White KM, Young RM. Needing to connect. The effect of self and others on young people’s involvement with their
mobile phones. Australian journal of Psychology. 2010; 62(4): 194-203
use mobile phones when travelling by air. According to the survey they have also found that Indians are the
"most social" with 69% most likely to use their phones in cinema halls/ movie theatres, 21% use it in a place
of worship, and 79% while attending a wedding ceremony. 25% of users across the markets surveyed have
said they used mobile phones in the meetings, 80% of Asians use a mobile phone while eating. With so
many utility applications being made available on mobile phones, be it to surf the internet or to pay bills,
this dependency on mobile phones is escalating at a greater pace.10
It explored the ringxiety (Phantom ringing) and other perceived effects, as well as the pattern of the
mobile phone usage among college students in South India, Mangalore, and they found that mostly, the
person whom they talked to on their phones were parents for 220 (51%) of the students. 150 (48%) talked
for less than half hour in a day and 137 (41%) were high volume message users. “Ringxiety” were more
likely to use their phones at restricted place like class rooms (99%) and libraries (60.3%). Cagan, et al.
(2014)11 stated that daily cellular phone use has increased the level of addiction. It has been established that
there is a negative correlation between addiction to cellular phone and academic success and also a positive
correlation between addiction to cellular phone and the level of depression. Sheopuri and Sheopuri (2014)12
observed that extent of addictive behaviour towards the usage of mobile phones and the relation between the
users of the mobiles and the psychological behaviour among adolescents in Bhopal, India. They showed that
cell phone usage is so strongly integrated in to young people’s behaviour that symptoms of behavioural
addiction, such as cell phone usage interrupting their day to day activities.

Effect of Mobile Phone on Adolescents Mental and Physical Health Over usage of the mobile phone
leads to physiological health hazards like headaches, earache, warmth sensation, fatigue and musculoskeletal
symptoms. Usage of mobile phones during driving is one of the leading cause of accident, and some
controversy still exist in the over usage of the mobile phone whether it produces tumor or not. Mobile-
addicts can be seriously affected at the psychological level. They don’t show any physical and psychological
symptoms, their disorder goes unnoticed by others. Ozturan, et al. (2002)iconcluded that Ear is the first
organ dealing with the cell phones, there is a elevated energy deposition in the ear as compared to other
organs and its effect on hearing are debated. Loughran, et al. (2005) found that exposure to electromagnetic
fields emitted by digital mobile phones handsets prior to sleep decreased the rapid eye movement (REM),
sleep latency and increased the electroencephalogram spectral power in the 11.5 to 12.25 Hz frequency
range during the initial part of sleep following exposure. Agrawal, et al. (2008)13reported that the cell
phones harmful radiations were able to degrade the quality of sperm with regard to quantity, viability,

10
Subba SH, Mandelia C, Nagraj K. Ringxiety and the Mobile Phone usage Pattern among the Students of a Medical college in
South India. J Clin Diagn Res. 2013; 7(2):205-209.
11
Cagan O, Unsal A, Celik N. Evaluation of college students the level of Addiction to Cellular Phone and Investigation on the
Relationship between the Addiction and the Level of Depression. Social and Behavioral Science 2014; 114:831-839
12
Sheopuri A, Sheopuri A. Darker shade of smart phones: Boon to Bane. International Journal of Business Quantitative
Economics and Applied Management Research, 2014, 1(7)
13
Agrawal A, Deepinder D, Sharma RK, Rang G, Li J. Effect of Cell phone usage on Semen Analysis in Men Attending Infertility
Clinic: An Observational study. Fertility and Sterility, 2008; 89(1):124-128
motility, morphology and few mutations in DNA causing severe changes in sperms. Soderqvist, et al.
(2008)explored the assess use of wireless phones and health symptoms in 2000 Swedish adolescents and
they showed that frequent mobile phone users reported health complaints, such as tiredness, stress,
headache, anxiety, concentration difficulties and sleep disturbances. Regular users of wireless phones had
health symptoms more often and reported poorer perceived health than less frequent users. Srivastava and
Tiwari (2013) investigated that the effects of excess use of cell phone on adolescent’s mental health and
quality of life.

They randomly selected 100 male students from Uttar Pradesh, India. They found that limited users
of cell phone have better mental health and quality of life than unlimited users of cell phone. Acharya, et al.
(2013)14examined that the health effects of cell phones usage amongst students pursuing professional
courses in colleges. College students of both sexes in the age group 17-23 years from urban and rural
backg15rounds were selected at random (those using cell phones). Result showed that headache was to be the
commonest symptoms followed by irritability/anger. Other common mental symptoms included lack of
concentration and poor academic performance, insomnia, anxiety etc. Among physical symptoms- body
aches, eye strain, digital thumb were found to be frequently in both sexes. Gender differences and Mobile
Phone Addiction Adolescents consider the mobile phone as important in their lives: girls more than boys
(Oksman, 2006). According to previous studies, boys and girls respond differently to SMS, the latter using it
more than the former (Rautiainen 2002; APS 2004; MACRO 2004; Haste 2005)16. Only one study
contradicts these findings (Sze & Hock 2004). Researches explain how the mobile phone levels the gender
differences between boys and girls precisely by giving rise to ‘gendered’ sub-cultures; so that while girls use
it primarily as a tool for communication and maintenance of peer-groups and contacts, and social aspects
(such as design, ringtone, and colour), boys use it more for its own sake, exploring its features, and as a toy;
this difference in use balancing out the amount of use among both groups (Lobet-Maris 2002; Rautiainen
2001; Skog 2002). Devis, et al. (2009)17concluded that boys spend more time on using mobile phones than
girls and also adolescents consume more time on using mobile phones on weekend than on casual weekend
day. Turner et al. (2008) suggest that "user personality and individual attributes such as age and gender were
found to be differentially associated with some aspects of phone-related behaviors" Billieux et al. (2008)
tested gender differences in both teams of impulsion and problematic mobile phone use among the young.
The results showed that men use their mobile phones more frequently in dangerous situations whereas

14
Acharya JP, Acharya I, Waghrey D. A study on some of the Common Health Effects of Cell-Phones amongst college students.
Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education. 2013, 3(4).
15
Soderqvist F, Carlberg M, Hardell L. Use of wireless telephones and self-reported health symptoms: A population based study
among Swedish adolescents aged years. Environmental Health 2008; 7(18):15-19. doi: 10.1186/1476-069x-7-18
16
. Haste H. Joined-up texting: The role of mobile phones in young people’s lives. Nestlé Social Research Programme, Report no.
3, February 2005. Retrieved January 2005; 8, 2007. from
17
5. Devis JD, Carmen P, Vicente JB, Thomas JM. Screen media time usage of 12-16 year old Spanish school adolescents: Effects
of personal and socioeconomic factors, season and type of day. Journal of Adolescence. 2009; 32(2):213-231.
women are more dependent on them. The results on impulsion showed that men exhibit significantly higher
levels of sensation seeking and lower levels of perseverance, while women reveal significantly

EMPERICAL RESEARCH
Forty introductory psychology students were recruited through Experimetrix, an online experiment
management system used in introductory psychology courses at the University of Arkansas. Inclusionary
criteria were age at least 18 years or older and being a current romantic relationship of 6 months’ duration or
more. Participants were instructed to bring their romantic partners with them for the study. There was an
equal number of male (N = 40) and female (N = 40) participants and all participating couples were
heterosexual. Relationship length for these couples ranged from 0.3 to 4.3 years (M = 1.7, SD = 1.1). The
reported age range of participants was between 18 and 26 years (M = 19.5, SD = 1.9). Participants in the
experimental condition (M = 18.9, SD = 0.8) were significant younger than participants in the control
condition (M = 20.0, SD = 2.3), t (76) = 2.70, p = .009. Regarding race/ethnicity, 80.0% of participants
identified as Caucasian, 5.0% of participants identified as Asian, 2.5% identified as African American, 2.5%
identified as Hispanic or Latino, and 7.6% identified as mixed. The experimental group (82.9% Caucasian)
and the control group (81.4% Caucasian) did not differ in ethnic diversity. In terms of their class standing,
37.5% of participants were freshman, 41.3% were sophomores, 8.8% were juniors, 5.0% were seniors, and
3.8% identified themselves as being in their 5th year or beyond. There were no differences in class standing
between the two groups, Χ2 (4) = 7.27, p = .129. Some participants were no longer enrolled in college and
others were enrolled at other universities. Percentages do not add up to 100 because of some missing data.

MATERIALS

Demographics. Participants filled out a demographic questionnaire that asked for their sex, age,
race/ethnicity, and year in school. In addition, participants were also asked to say whether they owned a cell
phone (yes/no), whether they thought their own cell phone use was excessive (yes/no), and if the phone had
ever gotten in the way of an interaction with their romantic partner (yes/no).18

Relationship Problems. In order to determine what problems the couple was experiencing in their current
relationship, a 51-item version of the Areas of Change Questionnaire (ACQ; Weiss & Birchler, 1975) was
used which was modified to address several conflict areas that may arise in a typical college relationship.
The original questionnaire is divided into three sections that reflect the degree of change required. The first
25-item section is for the participant to report the degree to which the participant wants their partner to
change, and the second 25-item section is for the participant to report the degree to which their partner wants

18
(1973), A Theory of Buyer Behavior, in H.H. Kassarjian and T.S. Roberton (eds. Persepectives in Consumer Behavior, Glenview,
Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company, 467-487
the participant to change.19 The third section is an open ended question asking about other areas that the
participants feel need to be changed20. This scale is reported to be able to distinguish between distressed (M
= 59.96) and nondistressed (M = 11.74) couples. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was reported as being 0.84
(Weiss & Birchler, 1975). In the current study, the Cronbach alpha coefficient was 0.67 for self scores, and
0.71 for partner scores21.

Relationship Satisfaction. In order to assess relationship satisfaction, each participant completed a 32-item
modified version of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS; Spanier, 1976) (Appendix B). The scale was
modified to reflect issues more applicable to relationships of college students (e.g., items regarding
parenting or household finances were removed or reworded). The DAS has good internal consistency, with a
Cronbrach alpha coefficient of 0.96 (Spanier, 1976). In the current study, the Cronbach alpha coefficient
was 0.84.

Communication. To assess perceptions of the couples’ ability to communicate effectively, a set of

questions was developed that asked participants to rate a laboratory based interaction they just had with their
romantic partners. A total of 12 items assessed perceptions of the interaction (Appendix C). Responses were
summed to create a total score, with higher scores indicating greater satisfaction with the interaction. The
items evidenced good internal reliability, with a Cronbach alpha of .82.

Mood. In order to assess participants’ mood states before and after the dyadic interaction task, a modified
version of the Profile of Mood States (POMS; Lorr, McNair, Fisher, 1982; Appendix E) was used. This 37-
item scale assesses negative moods (such as tension, anger-hostility, fatigue, depression, and confusion) as
well as positive moods (such as friendliness, elation, and vigor). The measure has good internal consistency,
with subscale reliability coefficients from .63 to .96 (Curran, Andrykowski, & Sudts, 1995). In the current
study, the Cronbach alpha coefficient for the scale was 0.88.

DISCUSSIONS

This study organized two rounds of survey to analyze the functional attributes considered when users
purchase or replace smartphones. A research model was developed based on TAM and SEM was used to test
the model. According to the empirical analysis, the four functional attributes – wireless Internet, multimedia,
application, and after services – were proven to affect PU and PEOU, but design affected only PU. This

19
J. H. Wu, S. C. Wang (2005), what drives mobile commerce? An empirical evaluation of the revised technology acceptance
model, Information & Mangement, 42, 719-729
20
J. E. Engel and R. D. Blackwell (1982), Consumer Behavior, 4th ed., New York: The Dryden Press [14] J. A. Howard and J. N. Seth
21
F. D. Davis (1989), Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology, MIS
Quarterly, 13(3), 319-339

I. Ajzen, and M. Fishbein (1980), Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Behavior, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice-Hall Inc
shows that superior design can improve convenience, while not being connected to an increase in usefulness.
In the case of ease of use, the technical performance of the smartphone is totally different from that of the
feature phone which means that design cannot determine ease of use of the smartphone. However, after
smartphones are more widely used by the general population, it is expected that design will significantly
affect ease of use.

The analysis showed that PU affects BI directly, whereas PEOU does not. Actually, most of previous
research has conflicted in terms of conclusions regarding PU and PEOU. In most of the previous research,
PEOU directly affects BI; however, only PU affects BI in other research. By Adams et al., an emphasis on
PEOU is not proper when preceding variables for using an information system are defined. Further,
according to Szajna, if users do not have enough experience in the use of information systems, PEOU
increasingly affects BI. In the results of this rsearch, PEOU does not influence BI directly, because the
majority of respondents use smartphones.

Figure :The results of the path coefficient analysis

CONCLUSION
This research aims to investigate factors affecting the adoption of smartphones using TAM, focusing
on general consumers. In this study, there are two notable facts regarding functional attributes and beliefs.
First, this research identified functional attributes that are considered by users who purchase or replace
smartphones and analyzed the ways these attributes affect BI of smartphones. Second, we also found that PU
significantly affects BI directly, while PEOU does not in adopting smartphones. This research is one of the
first attempts to investigate technology acceptance of smart phones for general use in the mobile phone
market. In particular, it reflects customer opinion, not expert opinion directly to analyze the adoption of
smartphones. The research results are useful in interpreting the characteristics of the market with regard to
smartphones and customers, and further can support the design of new products and the development of
marketing strategies.
In spite of these contributions, however, this paper has two limitations and future research is needed.
First, data collection was limited to Mumbai and Delhi areas in India and the ratio of smartphone users to
feature phone users in our data was different with actual ratio in the Indian mobile market. These limitations
can cause generality problems. Therefore, in future research, the data collection process should be
elaborated using hierarchical random sampling method. Also, the behavior of smartphone users and feature
phone users may be different and two different TAMs, one for potential customers and the other for real
users can be developed to reflect the distinguished characteristics of the two groups.
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