A Study About Mobile Handset Preference Among Youth in Kochi Project Report

EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION

PROJECT REPORT

A STUDY ABOUT MOBILE HANDSET PREFERENCE AMONG YOUTH IN KOCHI,

KERALA

Submitted By:

Group No: 2 (MBA-A) Anuranjan Kulu

Dinoy M.B

Joe Mathai

Neethu Mohan

Resmi. S

Teenu Treasa

1

Declaration

We, hereby declare that this dissertation entitled on “A STUDY ABOUT MOBILE HANDSET PREFERENCE AMONG YOUTH IN KOCHI, KERALA, has been prepared by Anuranjan Kulu, Dinoy, Joe Mathai, Neethu Mohan, Resmi. S and Teenu Treasa (MBA-A: 2010-2012) under the supervision and guidance of Mrs. Susan Mathew, Lecturer, Dept of Management Science RCBS, Kakkanad.

We also hereby declare that this is a bonafide record of dissertation work done by us during the course of our study.

CONTENTS

2

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE NO.

1. INTRODUCTION

2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

4. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

5. FINDINGS

6. CONCLUSION

3

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

4

India has emerged as the fastest growing mobile handset market in the world. The Indian mobile market is primarily dominated by the youngsters who account for 32 percent of the total market. Understanding the youth's preference is a prerequisite for handset manufacturers to sustain or create a competitive advantage in the emerging market. This paper throws light on the factors that motivate the youth to own mobile handsets. The paper mainly explores the functional aspects of owning a handset and focuses on understanding the relative importance of the reasons for the purchase and the attributes that college-going students generally look for while buying a handset.

The prime objective of the study was to understand the variation in the importance given by different age and gender group to the select factors while buying mobile handset in India. India is the world’s 12th largest consumer market . It is projected that by 2025 India become fifth largest economy in the world ahead of Germany. There is an explosive growth in all the areas of consumer goods and services. Communication that accounts for 2 percentage of consumer spending today will be one of the fastest expanding categories with growth of about 13 percentages. Mobile telecommunication industry has shown a tremendous growth over the last few years. The market of mobile handset is also growing with the growing demand of telecommunication. At present India is the second largest market for mobile handset. The growth in this sector has been improved due to liberalization of telecommunication laws and regulations. The consumers of both rural and urban college going students to mature elders almost all group have started using mobile telecom services.

Objectives Of The Study

5

To study the attitude of teenagers and youth age group 15-30 towards cellular phones.

Enumerate preference of handset as gender wise and age wise.

Investigate their awareness about new trends in mobile handset industry.

Study about market segmentation of mobile handset industry.

Study about the new technological trends in mobile handset industry.

Study brand loyalty of mobile handsets.

6

CHAPTER 2

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Methodology

7

Research methodology denotes the way in which a research problem is systematically solved. It includes all steps that are taken by researcher in solving the research problem with the logic behind applying each of them.

To ensure primary research conducted in Cochin, Kerala. A detailed questionnaire was used to collect information from respondents.

Methods of data collection

The source of primary data was collected by interviews with the respondents using schedules. The collected data analyzed and interpreted by using percentage analysis and expressed in the form of using tables and diagrams. Secondary data collected from magazines, reference books, internet etc.

Sample size

The sample size denotes the no of samples used for conducting the study. The total sample size consists of 30 people.

Tools used

Questionnaire was used to conduct the survey. It contains objective type questions, each questions has to be framed increase the reliability of the data. Advantages of using this approach were simplicity of data processing., analysis and interpretation.

Limitations

8

Most of the respondents do not reveal the correct information. The sample size of the study is limited to 30, so opinion is not

general one. The study is based on primary data, so limitation of primary data

also affects the study.

9

CHAPTER 3

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A mobile phone (also called mobile, cellular telephone, cell phone or hand phone) is an electronic device used for full duplex two-way radio telecommunications over a cellular network of base stations known as cell sites. Mobile phones differ from cordless telephones, which only offer telephone service within limited range through a single base station attached to a fixed land line, for example within a home or an office.

10

The mobile phone—"the latest incarnation of the telephone" has been commercially available in India since the last decade. The reasons behind the ubiquitous acceptance and presence of the device were the favorable policies of the government, development of small handsets, radical fall in handset prices, and the commercialization of prepaid subscriptions. Since then, the device has become an inseparable part of the lives of almost all people irrespective of their gender, class, and age. From being a rich man's accessory to being owned by all and sundry, the mobile handset has really come a long way.

Previously, simple mobile handsets were in vogue. Afterwards manufactures started adding several attributes to the handsets. These attributes were luring the users who wanted more from their mobile handsets. Though many of them have become obsolescent in the western part of the world, they are still new to India. Calling and messaging is a basic feature in contemporary handsets. These days’ mobile handsets are sold predominantly for their browsing, mailing, storage capabilities, and several other classy attributes such as camera and MP3 players.

The increased competition among various telecommunication companies has increased the demand for mobile telecom service as well as handsets. According to Indian Brand equity foundation (2005) the mobile handset market which was worth rupees 2 billion dollar two years ago shown a growth of 60% per annum. The GSM handsets had a market share of 84% and CDMA had 16 % market share.

There are various players in GSM market. Nokia is leading the market with 59% old market share .Among other player; the prominent are Sony Ericson, Motorola, Samsung and LG. They are offering wide range of products to the consumers at different price range. The manufactures are introducing newer and newer models in quick succession of time. They are motivated to do so because Indian

11

mobile subscribers are prepared to pay for upgrades, value based service, and advanced models.

The cut through competition between manufactures has forced them to decrease the prices of the handsets. Mobile phones today have moved from its fundamental role of communication and have graduated to become an extension of the personality of the user. There is a dissemble preference for color display screens over the black and white one. Consumers are also making wide use of handset to clicking photographs, playing games, chatting, listening music, downloading icons, screen savers, music, ringtones etc.

HISTORY

Radiophones have a long and varied history going back to Reginald Fessenden's invention and shore-to-ship demonstration of radio telephony, through the Second World War with military use of radio telephony links and civil services in the 1950s, while hand-held mobile radio devices have been available since 1973.

The first mobile telephone call made from a car occurred in St. Louis, Missouri, USA on June 17, 1946, but the system was impractical from what is considered a portable handset today. The equipment weighed 80 lbs, and the AT&T service, basically a massive party line, cost $30 USD per month (equal to $334.15 today) plus 30 to 40 cents per local call, equal to $3.34 to $4.46 today. In 1960, the world’s first partly automatic car phone system, Mobile System A (MTA), was launched in Sweden. MTA phones were composed of vacuum tubes and relays, and had a weight of 40 kg. In 1962, a more modern version called Mobile System B (MTB) was launched, which was a push-button telephone, and which used transistors in order to enhance the telephone’s calling capacity and improve its operational reliability. In 1971 the MTD version was launched, opening for several different brands of equipment and gaining commercial success. Martin Cooper,

12

a Motorola researcher and executive is considered to be the inventor of the first practical mobile phone for hand-held use in a non-vehicle setting, after a long race against Bell Labs for the first portable mobile phone. Using a modern, if somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a hand-held mobile phone on April 3, 1973 to his rival, Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs.

The first commercially automated cellular network (the 1G generations) was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979, initially in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. Within five years, the NTT network had been expanded to cover the whole population of Japan and became the first nation-wide 1G network. In 1981, this was followed by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. NMT was the first mobile phone network featuring international roaming. The first 1G network launched in the USA was Chicago based Ameritech in 1983 using the Motorola Dyna TAC mobile phone. Several countries then followed in the early 1980s including the UK, Mexico and Canada.

The first "modern" network technology on digital 2G (second generation) cellular technology was launched by Radiolinja (now part of Elisa Group) in 1991 in Finland on the GSM standard which also marked the introduction of competition in mobile telecoms when Radiolinja challenged incumbent Telecom Finland (now part of TeliaSonera) who ran a 1G NMT network.

In 2001 the first commercial launch of 3G (Third Generation) was

again in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard.

One of the newest 3G technologies to be implemented is High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA). It is an enhanced 3G (third

13

generation) mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, also coined 3.5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity.

HANDSET FEATURES

All mobile phones have a number of features in common, but manufacturers also try to differentiate their own products by implementing additional functions to make them more attractive to consumers. This has led to great innovation in mobile phone development over the last twenty years.

The common components found on all phones are:

A rechargeable battery providing the power source for the phone

functions

An input mechanism and display to allow the user to interact

with the phone. The most common input mechanism is a

keypad, but touch screens are also found in some high end smart

phones.

Basic mobile phone services to allow users to make calls and

send text messages.

All GSM phones use a SIM card to allow an account to be

swapped among devices. Some CDMA devices also have a

similar card called a R-UIM.

14

Individual GSM, WCDMA, iDEN and some satellite phone

devices are uniquely identified by an International Mobile

Equipment Identity (IMEI) number.

Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones, and offer basic telephony, as well as functions such as playing music and taking photos, and sometimes simple applications based on generic managed platforms such as Java ME or BREW. Handsets with more advanced computing ability through the use of native software applications became known as smart phones. The first smart phone was the Nokia 9000 Communicator in 1996 which added PDA functionality to the basic mobile phone at the time. As miniaturization and increased processing power of microchips has enabled ever more features to be added to phones, the concept of the smart phone has evolved, and what was a high-end smart phone five years ago, is a standard phone today.

Several phone series have been introduced to address a given market segment, such as the RIM BlackBerry focusing on enterprise/corporate customer email needs; the Sony Ericsson Walkman series of music phones and Cyber shot series of camera phones; the Nokia N series of multimedia phones, the Palm Pre the HTC Dream and the Apple iphone.

Other features that may be found on mobile phones include GPS navigation, music (MP3) and video (MP4) playback, RDS radio receiver, alarms, memo recording, personal digital assistant functions, ability to watch streaming video, video download, video calling, built-in cameras (1.0+ Mpx) and camcorders (video recording), with autofocus and flash, ringtones, games, PTT, memory card reader (SD), USB (2.0), dual line support, infrared, Bluetooth (2.0) and Wi-Fi connectivity, instant messaging, Internet e-mail and browsing and

15

serving as a wireless modem. Nokia and the University of Cambridge demonstrated a bendable cell phone called the Morph.

16

CHAPTER 4

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Data Analysis And Interpretations

In this study the researchers analyses the data and inference are derived from them. The main objective of this study under this chapter is to bring out the true

17

dimensions of the data and to make clear the options, ideas and suggestions of the respondents.

Table 1

Gender wise classification of respondents

Classification No: of respondents PercentageMale 16 53Female 14 47Total 30 100

The above table shows the gender wise classification of the respondents. From the analysis it is clear that 53 % of respondents are male and 47 % are female.

Figure 1

Gender

MaleFemale

Table 2

Classification based on age group of the respondents

Age group No: of respondents Percentage15-20 1 320-25 13 54

18

25-30 16 43Total 30 100

The above table shows the age group of respondents. From the analysis it is clear that 3 % of respondents come under the age group of 15-20, 54 % under 20-25 and 43 % under 25-30.

Figure 2

Age Group

15-2020-2525-30

Table 3

Table showing whether the respondents owned a mobile phone or not

Status No: of respondents PercentageYes 30 100No 0 0

19

Total 30 100

The above table shows that 100 % of the respondents owned a mobile.

Figure 3

Owns Mobile Phone

YesNo

Table 4

Table showing the type of mobile phone owned by the respondents

Type No: of respondents PercentageNokia 15 50Apple iphone 5 17

20

Reliance 3 10Black Berry 3 10LG 2 6.5Sony Ericsson 2 6.5Others 0 0Total 30 100

From the above table it is clear that 50 % of respondents use Nokia phones, 17 % uses Apple iphone, 10 % uses reliance, 10 % uses Black Berry,6.5 % uses LG, 6.5 % uses Sony Ericsson .

Figure 4

Type of mobile phone owned

NokiaApple iphoneRelianceBlack BerryLGSony Ericsson

Table 5

Table showing the type of connection used by the respondents

Type No: of respondents PercentagePrepaid 14 46

21

Postpaid 16 54Total 30 100

The above table shows that 46% of respondents are using prepaid connections and 54 % are using postpaid connections.

Figure 5

Type of connection

PrepaidPostpaid

Table 6

Table showing the service provider to the mobile phones of the respondents

Service provider No: of respondents PercentageAirtel 13 43

22

Idea 4 13Vodafone 7 24Reliance 3 10Bsnl 3 10Others 0 0Total 30 100

The above table shows that 43 % of respondents use Airtel connection, 13 % uses Idea, 24 % uses Vodafone, 10 % uses Reliance, and 10 % uses Bsnl .

Figure 6

Service Provider

AirtelIdeaVodafoneRelianceBsnl

Table 7

Table showing the one who bought mobile phone to the respondents

No: of respondents PercentageFather 19 63

23

Brother 3 10Self 8 27Company 0 0Others 0 0Total 30 100

The above table shows that majority of respondents got mobile phones from their

(63 % by father, 10% by brother, and 27 % by self)

Figure 7

Mobile phone bought by

FatherBrotherSelf Company

Table 8

Table showing reasons for owing a mobile phone

24

Reasons No: of respondents PercentageEverybody had one you wanted to buy it

2 7

somebody asked you to get 4 13

No landline connection 5 17

Convenience in calling 13 43

Messaging 5 17

Other reason 1 3

Total 30 100From the above table we can analyze that majority of the respondents own a mobile phone because of the convenience in calling.

Figure 8

Reason for owning a mobile phone

Everybody had one somebody asked you to getNo landline connectionConvenience in calling MessagingOther reason

Table 9

Table showing accessories bought with mobile phones

Accessories No. of respondents Percentage

25

Only mobile cover 25 83

Only a waist pouch 2 7

Only a chord /string 3 10

None 0 0

Others 0 0

Total 30 100

From the above table majority of the respondents bought only mobile cover with mobile phones.

Figure 9

Accessories bought along with mobile phone

Only mobile coverOnly waist pouchOnly a chord/stringNone

Table 10

Table showing how often the respondents change the mobile phones

26

Changing Time No. of respondents PercentageLess than 6 months 5 176-12 months 5 17More than 1 yr 20 66Total 30 100

The above table shows that 17 % of respondents change their mobile within 6 months, 17 % within 6-12 months and 66 % more than 1 year.

Figure 10

Mobile changing period

Less than 6 months6-12 monthsMore than 1 year

Table 11

27

Table showing No. of mobile phones respondents family owns

Number No. of respondents PercentageOnly 1 0 02-3 12 404-5 16 53Above 5 2 7Total 30 100

The above table shows that about 0 % of respondents families are having only 1 mobile phone, 40 % are having 2-3 mobile phones, 53 % are having 4-5, and 7% are having more than 5 mobile phones in their family.

Figure 11

No. of mobile phones in the family

Only 12_34_5Above 5

Table 12

28

Table showing the respondent’s reason for choosing the present model of mobile phone

Reason No. of respondents PercentagePrice 9 30Appearance 5 17Functions 10 33Size and weight 3 10Trend 3 10Achievement 0 0Others 0 0Total 30 100

From the above table 30 % of respondents choose the mobile phones considering the price, 17 % appearance, 33 % functions, 10 % size & weight, and 10 % considering the trend.

Figure 12

Reason for choosing present model

PriceAppearanceFunctionsSize and weightTrend

Table 13

29

Table showing the satisfaction of respondents with their mobile

Opinion No. of respondents PercentageYes 28 93No 2 7

Total 30 100

From the above table it is clear that about 93 % of respondents are satisfied with their mobile phones and only 7% are dissatisfied.

Figure 13

Satisfaction of respondents with the mobile phones

YesNo

Table 14

30

Table showing the most important facility that should be in a mobile phone

Facility No. of respondents PercentageInternet access 9 30Camera 8 26Games 2 7Video calling 2 7Magic voice 3 10FM 6 20Others 0 0Total 30 100

From the above table about 30% of respondents wanted internet access along with their mobile phone as an added facility,26% wanted camera, 7% wanted games, again 7% voted for video calling, 10% for magic voice and 20% wanted FM in their mobile phones.

Figure 14

Facility that should be with a mobile phone

Internet accessCameraGamesVideo callingMagic voiceFM

31

CHAPTER 5

FINDINGS

FINDINGS

32

Following were the findings that were disclosed from the analysis of the data:

100 % of the respondents owned a mobile. About 54% of respondents were in the age group of 20-25. In that 53% of the respondents were male. Reason for owning a mobile phone was it was convenient in calling. Majority bought only mobile cover with the phones. Mobile phone changing period of 66% respondents were more than 1

year. Almost all families had 3-4 mobiles. Majority choose the present mobile phone considering its functions. Around 93% of the respondents were satisfied with their mobile phones. From the analysis it was clear that majority preferred internet access as an

added facility that should be provided with the mobile phones.

33

CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION

34

The mobile telecom services are now being widely consumed by the Indian society. Rather these have become an essential part of their lives. Besides communication, people now seek entertainment and other features that are compatible to their self-image and lifestyle. The self-image and lifestyle may vary among genders and different age groups. Therefore, the study was carried out among consumers of different age and gender groups to understand the importance of factors that influence their mobile handset buying. The intense competition between manufacturers has forced them to expand their market base. The study concludes that the users of age group of 18-30 years are less price sensitive than consumers of other groups; rather they consider ‘physical appearance’, ‘brand’, ‘value added features’, and ‘core technical features’ more important than users of any other age groups.. The mature consumers on the other hand may have priorities for other products due to other obligations. That is why they are more price-sensitive. Also they have less knowledge about new technological developments and therefore, consider ‘value added features’, ‘brand’ and ‘core technical features’ less important. Overall, people have given the least preference to the ‘core technical features’. This is probably due to the high price difference between handsets with highly advanced technical features and other handsets. Also female consumers gave only low to moderate preference to this factor. The study also reveals that the consumer does not bother much about the price of handset provided they are satisfied with other features.

35

ANNEXURE

QUESTIONNAIRE

36

A STUDY ABOUT THE MOBILE HANDSET PREFERENCE AMONG YOUTH IN KOCHIN KERALA

1. Gender : Male Female2. Age group : 15-20 20-25 25-303. Do you own a mobile phone? Yes No4. Currently you own a

Nokia Apple iphone Reliance Black berry LG Sony ericsson

5. The service provider isAirtelIdeaVodafoneRelianceBSNLOthers, Specify______________

6. You are in toPrepaidPostpaid

7. Who bought mobile for you?FatherBrotherSelf CompanyOthers

8. Reason for owing a mobile phone?Everybody around you already had one with themYou wanted to buy itSomebody asked you to get one for yourselfNo landline connectionConvenience in calling MessagingOther reason

9. What accessories have you bought with your mobile?Only mobile coverOnly a waist pouchOnly a chord /string

37

NoneOthers

10. Which Mobile company will be your second preference?Specify ________________________________________

11. How often do you change your mobile phone?Less than six month7-12 monthsMore than one year

12. How many mobile phones do your families have?Only one1-34-5Above 5

13. Write the model of your phone?_________________________________

14. Why did you choose this model?PriceAppearanceFunctionSize and weightTrendAchievementsOthers

15. Are you satisfied with your mobile phone?YesNo

16. Which do you think you do must with your mobile phone?Internet accessCamera GamesVideo callingMagic voiceFM

17. Rate your phone

No Particulars Bad Good Very Good ExcellentA Battery Back upB Price in relation with

featuresC Network reception

38

D StyleE Frequency problemF Customer service

availabilityG Brand value

18. Suggestions :

39

40