The Usage of Smartphone and Mobile Applications from the Point of View of Customers in Poland
5. Conclusions
The study was conducted with the participation of students, who are the most active users of smartphones and mobile applications. On the one hand, the study sampling constituted a specific limitation of the study as it is difficult to generalise the obtained results because the averages exceeded the findings obtained in surveys analysing the Polish population and the fact that the research mainly took the preferences of users aged 18–35 into account. Statistical sources have indicated, however, that over 90% of people in this group had their smartphones, and the level of ownership was estimated as 15–74% in the remaining age groups. On the other hand, taking into account this group’s receptive approach to innovation and globalisation tendencies, on the basis of the findings obtained in the research, it is possible to conclude future trends in the development of activities related to mobile devices and the use of mobile applications. It is also a group susceptible to international comparisons due to similar requirements regarding general trends on the internet. In the last three months of 2018, 40% of Poles made at least one purchase via the internet. Among Polish internet users, there were already over 23% of users who only did shopping via a smartphone (15% of buyers decided to finalise the transaction via smartphone) [10]. The obtained study results basically confirmed this tendency.
The most important differences and similarities between the results presented and the data appearing in other statistics, rankings, and studies are:
• All respondents owned at least one smartphone (on average, 10% more than in Poland).
• Respondents used 12% fewer smartphones with the Android operating system than the average share in Poland at the time, 2% fewer Android smartphones than the estimated average in Europe (in November 2018, the Android score in this regard fell to the level of 64.57%), and 14% less than the average in the world [13].
• A relatively large group (37%) used Apple phones (being considered more prestigious, which may be important in this environment), which, together with Samsung smartphones (26%, with using 42% with the Android system) constituted 63% of the all the equipment. The third position was taken by Huawei, followed by Xiaomi. Compared to the Polish market at that time, Samsung was seen as a market leader (42%), followed - after an intensive marketing campaign by Huawei (25%), Xiaomi (12%), and Apple, which took the fourth position [14].
• Among the advantages of used smartphones, respondents mainly valued high quality (hence the high share of iPhones), and, as in other studies, the availability of applications and design/appearance.
• Among the main disadvantages, the study participants listed the high price and low battery capacity (50% in total), as well as the high failure rate.
• Smartphones were used increasingly longer compared to data from 2014 [1], as the number of devices used for three-to-five years or more increased at the expense of the items that were used for less than three years. This is in line with the global trends that have shown a decrease in smartphone sales and an increase in the intensity of their use due to market saturation.
As predicted in 2019, 2.5% fewer smartphones were sold worldwide, which was 2 million fewer in Europe [15,16].
• As a result, according to the examined users’ declarations, since 2014, the intensity of application usage in the group of more than 10 applications has increased by almost 6%.
• The opinion about the availability of applications improved (85% good and very good), and the quality rating also increased—in over 60%, it was rated as good, even though the users also took note of a number of worse quality applications.
• The use of smartphones to enable various types of functionality is difficult to apply in broader comparisons due to the fact that statistics have usually referred to it as the use of tablets and portable PCs; however, 40% of respondents emphasised the use of these devices mainly for conversations or other widely perceived internet activities (browsing news, social media, emails, etc.).
• In order to distribute photos taken with a smartphone, most users (40%) used the Instagram system, more than 12% used Messenger, the same share of respondents sent them as MMSs, 10% disseminated them via Facebook, and others decided not to publish them but rather use them for their own purposes.
• Almost 58% of users used subscription services, and their number increased by 40% in comparison to 2014.
• The rating of the convenience of using stores with mobile applications increased by 12% compared to 2014, and the same tendency could be observed in terms of the share of users downloading only free applications from the websites of electronic content providers—an increase by 9% (up to 83%). This was in line with trends occurring in Poland, although the rates of downloading free applications in this group were 8% higher than the average [10].
• Nearly 80% of smartphone owners made purchases via the internet, only 24% did it often, 34% did sometimes, and 32% indicated that they rarely engaged in online shopping.
• Purchases mainly included clothing and footwear at 43% (due to the possible return, exchange, etc.
of goods guaranteed by legal provisions), transport tickets, or tickets for cultural events, cosmetics, food, etc. In general, these are still low-value expenses, and high-value online transactions are made using PCs [17].
• More than 90% of respondents carried out various financial operations via a smartphone.
The respondents (69%) mainly used bank applications for this purpose, over 21% of them
used the banks browser on the internet, and almost 10% did not use this option at all; 15% more smartphone users with iOS system tended to use banking applications (compare with [18]).
Smartphone owners mainly used passive banking operations, e.g., checking the account balance (48%), and 43% of respondents used active operations—making low-value transfers and low-value payments for goods or services (including the Blik system). As the analysis presented above indicates, when we compare the present findings with the results of other studies, the quantitative data appeared to be in line with national and international trends. In terms of qualitative data, certain specified differences resulting from the adopted methodology and the sampling procedure emerged, similarly to the case of the previously conducted research. The above considerations point to one definite conclusion, i.e., the mobile application market will continue to rapidly grow. Even if the dynamics of this growth has recently decreased [19], one needs to consider the following circumstances:
• The highest dynamics can be achieved if we start from scratch.
• Due to the increasing quality of both the technical characteristics of smartphones and mobile applications, the length of their use increases.
• If the process of technological “ageing” is slowing down, users are not interested in replacing their smartphone with a new one, and they only replace it when their device breaks down or stops working as well as before.
• Possibilities related to the replacement or repair of the items are not limited by law or technical solutions.
• Increasing the speed of data transfer to fifth-generation mobile technologies, which will probably make smartphone replacement necessary.
• Introduction of the technology of the so-called folded or broadcast smartphone screens, which will be an important technical novelty and may induce users to buy new devices.
• We may observe a growing tendency to diversify the sales structure (multiple sectors).
It is important to note that the demand for smartphones and mobile applications is currently driven by countries such as India, China, and Brazil, as well as African countries, whose inhabitants are buying an increasing number of smartphones and are also expected to use mobile application shops more and more. The pace at which new, improved applications are created is also increasing, together with the emergence of new technologies that will be entering new markets.
The presented research constitutes the second stage of research that will be completed with the use of a comparative analysis including also cultural aspects of smartphones and mobile applications in selected countries.
Funding:This research received no external funding.
Conflicts of Interest:The author declares no conflict of interest.
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©2020 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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