Most Preferred Mobile Phone Brand Among First Year Sliit Students

The main objective of this project is to gather data about the most preferred mobile brand among first years SLIIT students. For this endeavoring research, a questionnaire was employed using Google forms to gather the data required. Data gathering was conducted on 100 first year Sri Lankan Institute of Information and Technology students. Many first-year students of SLIIT are currently using the mobile brands Samsung, Apple and Huawei consequently. Information as such and more were formulated through this research and data collection. The research was carried out on two major avenues; mobile brands that the students currently use, and the mobile brands they prefer to use. The major feature that the students look out for when they have selected a mobile brand was performance while the least concerned feature by the students was the inexpensiveness. It was concluded that the most preferred mobile brand among first year students are Apple, Samsung and Huawei while the least preferred is LG, Xiaomi, Nokia, Sony. The major feature in focus for the most preferred mobile brand is performance and quality of the camera as well as the least focused feature is inexpensiveness, same as the brands they currently use. And the last conclusion was that many students would recommend their current mobile brand to others. Their recommendations were the mobile brands Apple, Samsung and Huawei, with consideration to the performance of the mobile brand.

Introduction

Mobile phone which is also known as Cell phone, Hand phone, Smart phone is a portable device which allows people to connect through calling, video calling and text messages. There are different mobile brands in the modern time. There is a massive competition in mobile phone marketing. Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi are few of the mobile brands.

Types of mobile brands

Apple

Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronal Wayne. Currently the apple headquarters is situated in Cupertino, California being one of the largest technological companies in the world. Apple entered the mobile market in 2007. The latest mobile was launched in September 2018 which is the iPhone XR.

Samsung

Samsung is a South Korean multinational Enterprise which was founded by Lee Byan Chul. Samsung Headquarters is currently located in Seoul. Samsung goal is to be one of the world’s top five brands by 2020. Samsung will launch a new device on 11th of October 2018. It is said that it offers “4X the fun”.

Huawei

In 1987 Ren Zhengfei founded Huawei. Currently headquarters of Huawei is situated I Shenzhen, China. The rough translation of Huawei is “Chinese achievement”. Huawei is an employee owned company. The first Huawei phone, the C300 was manufactured in 2004. The latest phone, the Huawei Mate 20 will be released on October 16th which has a triple camera setup.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi was founded by Lei Jun in 2010, who believes that high quality technology doesn’t need to cost. The Logo of Xiaomi which is MI mean Mobile Internet. According to the Market researcher International Data Corporation, Xiaomi is the 4th biggest smartphone brand in the world. 5. Google In January 2010 the first google phone officially advertised and released by Google was the Nexus One. But before that the T-Mobile G1 was said to be the first Google phone design by HTC. Google partnered wit HTC to design this phone. The latest Google Pixel 3 is to be launched on 9th of October in New York City.

Nokia

In 2000 September 1, one of the most popular mobile phones, The Nokia 3310 was released. 126 million units were sold of this mobile brand. Tapani Jokinen is the designer of the Nokia 3310. The latest Nokia, Nokia 7. 1 was launched on October 5th and it will be in stores on October 28th.

Objectives of the study

The main objective of this study was to recognize the perception of students towards the most preferred mobile brands. Other objectives included; to investigate what the current mobile brand popular among students, to investigate whether they are satisfied with their current mobile phone brands, to what magnitude a major feature of a smart phone is focused by students and the duration of usage of their current mobile phone. Another important objective that was achieved by this study was to find the most preferred mobile brand among first year students of Sri Lankan Institute of Information and Technology and what features led to the selection of the mobile brand they have chosen.

Research methodology

The approach selected to gather data for this research is based mainly on the questionnaire. Services from third party institutions such as Google docs was used in the data collection of the questionnaire, since it is much more convenient to gather data and circulate the questionnaire among the SLIIT students. The raw data obtained from this methodology was analyzed and inspected by the group, and relevant information was generated from the raw data. The forms were circulated only among the first-year students of SLIIT Malabe as the focus group was selected within the bounds of the institute. The forms were sent to all the available faculties: Computing, Business and Engineering. 100 responses were obtained for the analysis. The gender and the faculty of the respondents were also recorded for comprehensive analysis of the data set and to relate the respondent information to the data. The interest in this questionnaire among the students was too taken in to consideration in the analysis. The considered mobile brands for this research: Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Nokia, One plus, LG, HTC, Oppo, Google and Sony (other mobile brands were not taken in to consideration as the market foothold is a minority and is negligible).

Data analysis and interpretation

1. Gender ratio of the respondents. Interpretation: With a difference of 3. 8%, higher number of female students have responded to the questionnaire than male students.
2. Faculty of the respondent. Interpretation: The table below shows that a very high number of students of faculty of computing have responded to the questionnaire. Students from faculty of engineering and faculty of business have responded in the respective numbers.
3. Most used mobile brand of respondents Interpretation: One portion of the core information processed by the analysis of data obtained from this research is tabulated in this following table. This represents the most used mobile phone bran among first year SLIIT students and the respective percentages. Most used brand is Apple, with Samsung and Huawei preceding the numbers respectively.
4. Reasons for the current mobile brand be popular among respondents Interpretation: Most respondents have considered the performance of the mobile brand of their current mobile brand in selection. Their least concern was the cost effectivity of the mobile brand. This information is tabulated along with the respective percentages in the following table.
5. Respondents rating of their current mobile brand Interpretation: This was included to investigate the satisfaction of respondent about their current mobile brand. Most respondents seem to be satisfied with their current mobile brand since a high rated response can be observed after the rate 8. The total percentage of a rating higher than 5 is 88. 6%, which justifies the above conclusion
6. Time duration of the current mobile brand of respondents Interpretation: Most Students have used their mobile phone for more than 1 year which gives us 53% out of all the students. 29% Students have used their current mobile phone in a time duration of 6 months to 1 year.
7. Respondents preferred mobile brand Interpretation: The most preferred mobile brand of the respondents was Apple with a percentage of 36. 9%. Samsung, Huawei are most preferred after Apple with a percentage of 16% and 14. 2% subsequently. The least preferred phone was Nokia and LG both being 0%.
8. Reasons respondents prefer a certain mobile brand Interpretation: Many respondents consider performance of preferred mobile phone over other features. Quality of camera and memory capacity are also considered specifications when selecting their preferred mobile brand. The least considered option is the cost of the mobile brand.
9. Respondents recommendation of their current mobile phone Interpretation: While 89% recommend their current mobile phone to another person, 11% considers otherwise. Therefore, this further shows that most respondents are satisfied with the current mobile phone brand.

Conclusion

Many first-year students in Sri Lankan Institute of Information and Technology are currently using the mobile brands Samsung, Apple and Huawei respectively. Least used mobile brands are LG and Sony. It can be concluded that the major feature students are focused about when they have selected their current mobile brand is performance while the least investigated feature by the students is the cost. Many students rate their current mobile phone between 8 and 10, from a scale of 1 – 10 and very low amount have rated less than 5. Furthermore, many of the students have used their phone more than 1 year. We also can conclude the most preferred mobile brands among 1st year students are Apple, Samsung and Huawei while the least preferred are LG, Nokia, Sony. The major features taken into consideration by students in selecting the most preferred mobile brands is performance and quality of the camera and the most over looked feature is the cost of the brand. In addition to these, the last conclusion can be stated as a massive portion of students would recommend their current mobile brand to others. Page | 20 20 9

Recommendations

As per the results of the study, it can be suggested to select Apple, Samsung or Huawei, since those are the most preferred mobile phone brands among the students and a large portion would recommend their mobile brand to others. It can be recommended to consider the performance, Quality of the Camera and the Memory Capacity of the mobile brand when selecting a new brand.