The study examines whether there is an association between brand of mobile phone used and occupational status, educational level and satisfaction level. Influence of mobile phone usage was also examined. Data w ere collected on 478 mobile phone users. Convenient sampling method where the respondents were interviewed as they we re encountered was used. Statistical analysis methods such as descriptive statistics, chi-square test statistic, one sample t-test , were applied. The study indicated that Samsung is the most used mobile phone brand. The study also revealed that the major factors that influence the choice of a brand of mobile phone are price, the number of features, battery capacity, quality and fashionableness. The study discovered that there is no association between mobile phone brand used and educational level. The study reveals that there is an association between brand of mobile phone used and satisfaction with performance. Conclusion can be drawn that majority of the respondents often used their mobile phone application and were satisfied with the attributes of their mobile phone.
According to Coghill [
Beyond voice, mobile phones fulfill users’ needs by providing communication services and allowing transfer of information in the forms of text, graphics and voice; wireless internet services such as browsing and e-mail; and multimedia and entertainment services such as color screen, motion pictures, camera, games, music and other features [
The first cellular phone service Mobitel (now Tigo) was initiated in 1992 by Millicom Ghana limited. Next, it was Westel Spacefon (now MTN) operated by Scancom Ghana Limited joined Mobitel in 1994 in the provision of mobile telephone services. One-Touch (now Vodafone) operated by Ghana Telecom mobile telephone operator was the next competitor in the cellular phone market in the year 2000. A local cellular phone operator, Kasapa (now Expresso), followed. In May 2008, Globacom limited a Nigerian multinational telecommunication company acquired an operating license through its Glo mobile division in Ghana. Between 1992 and the year 2001, mobile phone usage seemed limited to some categories of people in the country. These included businessmen, managers in reputed companies, government officials, diplomatic corps, wealthy individuals and some very important personalities. This was limited to the country’s main cities. Eventually, due to the nationwide coverage of mobile phone service by providers, every category of people owns mobile phones, and even the less privileged from various villages also use mobile phone. It has helped bring about a source of employment to a section of the populace, and it has become fashionable to own a mobile phone. The acquisition of mobile phones by all has brought some challenges in such a way that people go to all extent to acquire them [
Dziwornu [
The main objective of this article is to determine the influencing factors that determine the choice of a brand of mobile phone by considering the satisfaction levels among mobile phone users, and to determine whether there is association between a particular mobile phone brand and educational level and occupational level. The null hypotheses formulated for this article are:
H0: there is no association between a particular mobile phone brand usage and educational level;
H1: there is no association between a particular mobile phone brand usage and occupational status;
H2: there is no association between brand of mobile phone used and satisfaction level.
Access to mobile phones expands, development of organizations is straining to keep abreast of how these technologies are affecting both flows of information and best practice implementation of development projects. Practitioners already are leveraging these technologies of development projects. Practitioners already are leveraging these technologies around the world, using mobile phones for such value-added tasks as providing farmers with up-to-minute crop price information, linking rural health workers to medical doctors and providing financial services to the previously unbanked. But these and other programs often are implemented without a solid understanding of the user environment. The analysis from Audience Scapes Ghana 2009 survey provides a glimpse of that environment in Ghana [
There are many social and interpersonal factors that influence customers to decide about any product, which is so in the case of the mobile phone also. Consumer behaviour is affected by a lot of variables, ranging from personal motivations, needs, attitudes and values, personality characteristics, socio-economic and cultural background, age, sex, professional status to social influences of various kinds exerted by family, friends, colleagues and society [
Several models have been developed to explain consumer purchasing behaviour. Engel, Blackwell and Miniard [
Understanding consumers’ choice of product based upon it attributes help marketers to understand why some consumers have preferences for certain mobile phone brands. The Lancaster model of consumer demand by Hendler [
This section of the study outlines the methodology employed. Exploratory research was conducted using random target population for generalizability of the results. A structured questionnaire was prepared and self-administered to the respondents. The questionnaire was made up of 19 close ended questions used to collect opinions of respondents. The questionnaires were measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree/always) to 5 (strongly disagree/never). The study population was made up of mobile phone owners within Anaji, New Takoradi, Tanokrom, Effia Kuma (including new site) and Windy Ridge where it is easy to assess respondents. Due to unavailability of the sampling frame and the impossibility of including every individual within the selected catchment area, a sample of 500 respondents were selected from which 478 of the administered questionnaires were retrieved. The remaining ones were discarded due to lack of response to a considerable number of items on the questionnaire and hence yielding a response rate of 96%. This response rate was considered sufficient for statistical reliability and generalizability [
Chi-square test statistic and one sample t-test were used. The Chi-square test statistic was used to check the relationship between categorical variables whereas the t-test was used to determine whether a sample comes from a population with a specific mean.
χ 2 = ∑ i = 1 r ∑ j = 1 c ( O i j − E i j ) E i j (1)
where
χ 2 = Chi-square
O i j = the observed frequency in the i t h row and j t h column
E i j = the expected frequency in the i t h row and j t h column
r = row
c = column.
The statistic under the null hypothesis has an approximate chi-square distribution with the degrees of freedom given by ( r − 1 ) ( c − 1 ) . The chi-square test statistic is used because; the samples drawn from the population are approximately normally distributed, the samples drawn from different population are randomly independents and the samples drawn from the population have the same standard deviation. In reporting the conclusion, if the p-value calculated is less than the alpha value observed ( p < α ), then the result is statistically significant indicating that the researcher has enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis and conclude that the two variables are related. However, if the p-value calculated is greater than alpha value observed ( p > α ), then the researcher does not have enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis that is the researcher does not have enough evidence to conclude that two variables are related.
The one sample t-test is the same as the formula for determining z-score, except that we are subtracting the sample mean from the population mean using the estimated standard error of the mean instead of the standard deviation.
t = x ¯ − Δ s / n (2)
where
x ¯ = the sample mean
Δ = specified value to be tested
s = sample standard deviation
n = size of the sample.
The assumptions to apply the one sample t-test are: data are independent, data are collected randomly and data are approximately normally distributed. The values in the t-table are not actually listed by sample size but by degrees of freedom ( d f ). The number of degrees of freedom for a problem involves the t-distribution for sample size n − 1 for one-sample mean problem.
The respondents varied on the preferred type of mobile phone brands, ranging from Nokia, Samsung, Infinix, Techno and others. The highest proportion of the respondents fell on Samsung. This accounted for 21% of the total respondents. This was followed by Infinix (18%), Nokia (16%), Techno (14%) and the least among the preferred brand was others. This also accounted for 2% of the population (see
Variable | Count | Percent |
---|---|---|
Mobile phone brands Nokia Samsung LG HTC Blackberry iPhone Infix Techno Others | 74 102 30 38 27 45 84 69 9 | 16 21 6 8 6 9 18 14 2 |
Reasons for the choice Affordability Fashionable More features Reliability High quality and battery life Popularity | 68 41 70 58 96 145 | 13 9 15 12 21 30 |
Major features considered before the selection of a mobile Bluetooth Radio/FM Camera Touch screen Memory card slot Internet access Video/audio player | 40 15 102 86 25 160 50 | 8 3 21 18 5 34 11 |
Price of mobile phones in Ghana cedis Below 100 100 - 300 310 - 599 600 - 899 900 - 1000 Above 1000 | 8 120 196 74 60 20 | 2 25 41 16 12 4 |
Distribution of mobile networks MTN Vodafone Tigo Airtel Glo Expresso | 170 146 50 75 25 12 | 36 30 10 16 5 3 |
34% out of the total respondents indicated Internet access, followed by Camera (21%), Touch screen (18%), Video/Audio player (11%) and the least was Radio/FM (3%).
When the price of mobile phone at which respondents would like to purchase was examined, 41% out of the total respondents indicated ¢310 - 599, followed by ¢100 - 300 (25%), ¢600 - 899 (16%). 2% out of the total respondents however indicated below ¢100. Respondents were lopsided toward the number of sim card slot to be considered when purchasing a mobile phone, with 68% of the respondents being one sim card slot and 28% were 2 sim card slots whilst 4% postulated more than 2 sim card slots. In terms of the distribution of mobile networks, 36% of the respondents posited MTN, followed by Vodafone (30%), Airtel (16%), Tigo (10%) and the others accounted for by 8% (see
As pointed out by Agresti [
Test of Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1
H0: there is no association between a particular mobile phone brand usage and educational level
H1: there is an association between a particular mobile phone brand usage and educational level
The result in
Characteristics | Value | Df | Assymp. Sig. (2-sided) |
---|---|---|---|
Pearson Chi-square | 84.061 | 21 | 0.000 |
Likelihood ratio | 49.241 | 21 | 0.000 |
Linear-by-linear association | 0.168 | 1 | 0.682 |
Characteristics | Value | Df | Assymp. Sig. (2-sided) |
---|---|---|---|
Pearson Chi-square | 52.812 | 21 | 0.000 |
Likelihood ratio | 57.698 | 21 | 0.000 |
Linear-by-linear association | 9.290 | 1 | 0.002 |
Characteristics | Value | Df | Assymp. Sig. (2-sided) |
---|---|---|---|
Pearson Chi-square | 17.225 | 7 | 0.016 |
Likelihood ratio | 17.841 | 7 | 0.013 |
Linear-by-linear association | 9.290 | 1 | 0.860 |
level, the p-value calculated of 0.682 is greater than the alpha value of 0.05. Therefore, we fail to reject the null hypothesis H0 and conclude that there is no association between mobile phone brands and educational level.
Hypothesis 2
H0: there is no association between mobile phone brand usage and occupational status
H1: there is an association between mobile phone brand usage and occupational status
Results in
Hypothesis 3
H0: there is no association between brand of mobile phone used and satisfaction level
H1: there is an association between brand of mobile phone used and satisfaction level
According to the result of the data analysis presented on Table, using linear- by-linear association at 5% significance level, the p-value calculated (0.860) is greater than the alpha value (0.05). Therefore, we fail to reject the null hypothesis (H0) and conclude that there is no association between brand of mobile phone used and satisfaction level.
Hypothesis
H0: making and receiving calls, text messaging, instant messaging, browsing the internet, playing mobile games, camera and calendar are not sometimes used.
H1: making and receiving calls, text messaging, instant messaging, browsing the internet, playing mobile games, camera and calendar are sometimes used.
According to the result of the data analysis presented in
Hypothesis
H0: respondents are uncertain about their satisfaction level regarding the following attributes of their phone, high battery capacity, high quality, modern, reliability of reception, more feature.
Functions | Test value = 3 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
t | df | Sig. (2-tailed) | Mean difference | 95% CI of the difference | ||
Lower | Upper | |||||
Marketing and receiving calls | −35.191 | 478 | 0.000 | −1.790 | −1.89 | −1.69 |
Text messaging | −10.047 | 478 | 0.000 | −0.826 | −0.99 | −0.66 |
Instant messaging | −17.060 | 478 | 0.000 | −1.232 | −1.37 | −1.09 |
Browsing the internet | −16.108 | 478 | 0.000 | −1.232 | −1.38 | −1.08 |
Playing mobile games | −8.518 | 478 | 0.000 | −0.826 | −1.02 | −0.63 |
Camera | −13.227 | 478 | 0.000 | −0.971 | −1.12 | −0.83 |
Calendar | −7.758 | 478 | 0.000 | −0.710 | −0.89 | −0.53 |
Functions | Test value = 3 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
t | df | Sig. (2-tailed) | Mean difference | 95% CI of the difference | ||
Lower | Upper | |||||
High battery capacity | −16.487 | 478 | 0.000 | −1.34058 | −1.5014 | −1.1798 |
High quality | −25.653 | 478 | 0.000 | −1.31884 | −1.4205 | −1.2172 |
Modern | −16.758 | 478 | 0.000 | −1.15942 | −1.2962 | −1.0226 |
Reliability of reception | −20.397 | 478 | 0.000 | −1.26812 | −1.3911 | −1.1452 |
More features | −20.045 | 478 | 0.000 | −1.21014 | −1.3295 | −1.0908 |
H1: respondents are not uncertain about their satisfaction level regarding the following attributes of their phone, high battery capacity, high quality, modern, reliability of reception, more feature.
The p-values for the functions (high battery capacity, high quality, modern, reliability of reception and more features) are 0.000 which is less than the alpha value of 0.05. We therefore reject the null hypothesis (H0) and conclude that respondents are not uncertain about their satisfaction level regarding the following attributes of their phones; high battery capacity, high quality, modern, reliability of reception and more features. Since the test value (3) does not lie between the confidence interval and the t-values are negative, we can further conclude that majority of the respondents strongly agree or agree that they are satisfied with the attributes of their phones (see
Hypothesis
H0: respondents are uncertain about the following contributions mobile phones make to people’s lives; access to information, quick reference to information, communication and interpretation of information and improve rela-
Functions | Test value = 3 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
t | df | Sig. (2-tailed) | Mean difference | 95% CI of the difference | ||
Lower | Upper | |||||
Access to information | −21.084 | 478 | 0.000 | −1.31884 | −1.4430 | −1.1952 |
As a quick reference to information | −18.058 | 478 | 0.000 | −1.21014 | −1.3427 | −1.0776 |
Enhanced communication and interpretation of information | −19.895 | 478 | 0.000 | −1.17391 | −1.2906 | −1.0572 |
Improve relation among friends and social ties | −18.741 | 478 | 0.000 | −1.24638 | −1.3779 | −1.1149 |
tionship among friends.
H1: respondents are not uncertain about the following contributions mobile phones make to people’s lives; access to information, quick reference to information, communication and interpretation of information and improve relationship among friends.
From the result of the data analysis presented in
The most used mobile phone brand is Samsung which is closely followed by Infinix and Nokia. Given that the population of Anaji, New Takoradi, Tanokrom, Effia Kuma (including new site) and Windy Ridge is a small version of the population of Sekondi-Takoradi, it is likely that this result will be generally true of Sekondi-Takoradi, granted that the sample is representative of the 5-selected communities.
Popularity, high quality and battery life, more features, affordability (pricing) were major influential factors which were considered before the choice of mobile phone brand. These attributes must also be considered by dealer of mobile phones.
It was also inferred that for the people of the 5 communities ((Anaji, New Takoradi, Tanokrom, Effia Kuma (including new site) and Windy Ridge)): there is no association between mobile phone brand used and educational level; there is an association between mobile phone brand used and occupational status; there is no association between brand of mobile phone used and performance; majority of the respondents agree that they are satisfied with the attributes of their mobile phones. In general, mobile phones facilities play useful role in the lives of respondents.
Twenefour, F.B.K. (2017) Major Determinants that Influence the Choice of Brand of Mobile Phone. Open Journal of Statistics, 7, 663-675. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojs.2017.74046