Consuming Behaviour of University Students Purchasing Smartphones - Dissertation Example

These products have a vast combination of features. Simultaneously, these companies also compete with one another to offer the product at the most reasonable price. This paper investigates the consuming behavior of university students in the United Kingdom concerning their purchase of smartphones. The three most significant factors have been identified through this research work that affects the smartphone purchasing behavior of this customer base. It has been product features (of smartphones) affect their purchasing decision the most. These consumers also attach huge importance to the brand name of the product that they are going to purchase. Branded smartphones are preferred by these customers since high brand value serves as an identification of superiority of the product as well as a symbol of status in the society and peer group. The price of the product is considered by the customers while they purchase a new smartphone, but, research shows that they are often willing to spend a large sum of money to obtain a smartphone of a very high brand name.
Smartphones are becoming an increasingly important device that is used by the average customer in the United Kingdom. According to research, the number of smartphone users in the UK is growing continuously and rapidly. Purchase and use of smartphones depend on a lot of factors, such as the tastes and preferences of the individual customer, the income level of the customer, the previous usage history of mobile phones, age, and gender of the customer as well as education level of the individual. While the demographic features of the customer base affect the smartphone purchasing behavior of the customer, attributes of the product also take an important position in the purchasing decision made by the customers. These attributes are the product features, looks, and appearance of the phone, price of the item, the relative price of the phone compared to the other smartphones offered by the competing firms, awareness among the peer group about the product or its brand, customer’s knowledge about the brand and customer loyalty toward the brand. It has been through recent research works that smartphone usage among adults decreases with age. Also, over the last decade, the use of smartphones has increased among the female population by a considerably high extent. Since 2010, the number of female customers of smartphones has increased significantly from the number at the beginning of the twentieth century. Among the student generation, there is an almost equal number of female smartphone owners as the male smartphone owners (Solomon, et al., 2006).
At present, the mobile phone market has expanded geographically as well as economically. Smartphone usage has become a modern trend of the middle-class population across all countries and demand for such devices is rising constantly. Smartphones can perform a vast range of functions due to which this device has moved out of its identity of a mere mobile phone and has become the ‘personal assistance device’ (PDA) for the users. Several smartphone manufacturing companies are rapidly gaining popularity through the products offered by them. Several companies operate internationally, such as Samsung, HTC, Nokia, LG, and some others, and they occupy a major share of the international market for mobile phones.