An Exploratory Study on the Trend of Smartphone Usage in a Developing Country

The purpose of this study is to better understand the current dynamics of the Malaysian market for mobile content and applications. This paper presents the result of a survey on the trend of smartphone from the perspective of end consumers. The data was collected from 1814 respondents across major cities in Malaysia. This study has looked into the familiarity of users towards smartphones, choices of smartphone brand and service providers, and most importantly the determinants that influence their purchasing decision. Additionally, the consumers’ preferences on smartphone specifications such as design, computing power, operating platform, and price are investigated. The statistics presented is to provide fundamental information regarding the status and trends in the smartphone market in Malaysia. Such information is useful for academics to the development of future works in the field, and for smartphone manufacturers, application developers and other stakeholders to plan their direction in the Malaysian smartphone market.