Prioritizing Cell Phone Choice by College Students

Prioritizing cell phone choice by college students
Prioritizing cell phone choice by college students
2012
Miss Madiha
University of Central Punjab
5/3/2012
2012
Miss Madiha
University of Central Punjab
5/3/2012

Final Project “Microeconomics”

Group Members

Jazib Ikram Khan Niazi L1F11BBAM0140

Bakhtawar Sattar L1F11BBAM2136

Ebad Aziz L1F11BBAM2117

Ayesha Inam L1F11BBAM2108

Muhammad Asad L1F11BBAM2130 Final Project “Microeconomics”

Group Members

Jazib Ikram Khan Niazi L1F11BBAM0140

Bakhtawar Sattar L1F11BBAM2136

Ebad Aziz L1F11BBAM2117

Ayesha Inam L1F11BBAM2108

Muhammad Asad L1F11BBAM2130 z Table of Content: Abstract: 4 Introduction 4 History of cell phones: 4 Progress of Cell Phones 5 1st Generation cell phones: 5 2nd Generation cell phones: 5 3rd Generation Cell phones: 5 4rd Generation Cell phones: 6 Why College Students? 6 BUT WHY COLLEGE STUDENTS 7 Research/Results 8 Pie Chart 9 Conclusion: 13 References: 13

Abstract:
The popularity of cell phones in recent years and the advancement it has made in technology is remarkable. It has known a sort of necessity in everyone’s life. It connects people wirelessly to public switched telephone networks. The advances in mobile telephony can be traced in successive generations from the early "0G" services like MTS and its successor Improved Mobile Telephone Service, to first generation (1G) analog cellular network, second generation (2G) digital cellular networks, third generation (3G) broadband data services to the current state of the art, fourth generation (4G) native-IP networks.
This paper focuses on the how the college students prioritize their cell phone choices. The results here in paper are based on the survey carried out on 100 students of this (UCP) university. The survey was done through several of questionnaires. These questionnaires comprised of all possible questions that may arise in college students’ choice. It dealt with styles, features, price, shape, make and other relevant factors.
Several of the conclusions can be drawn from this survey and the way we have arranged it.

Introduction

History of cell phones:
The history of cell phones dates back to 1920`s. A period when the radios were emerging as the effective communication devices. The start of cell phones was in the form of radio phones which were installed in taxi/cars using two-way radio communication. Like all electronic gadgets cell phones have been upgraded and u[dated over the time. Its each stage was increasingly more interesting than the previous one.
The first use of cell phones was done by Swedish police in 1946. The made it functional by connecting a hand-held phone to the central telephone network. It was quite similar to the two way radio.
From here the evolution of modern cellular phones began. Communication architecture of Hexagon Cells was created for cell phones by D.H. Ring; of Bell Labs 1947.An engineer from Bell labs discovered cell towers which had the capability to only transmit but to also receive the signals in three different directions. Before this discovery, the cell phones only worked in two directions and through an antenna.

Progress of Cell Phones

1st Generation cell phones:
The very first mobile phones are now referred to as first generation (1G) mobile phones. The first handheld phone to be released on the U.S market was the Motorola dynastic 8000X in 1983. Mobile phones started to gain popularity in the eighties with the introduction of cell phones that were based on cellular networks.

Mobile phones were originally much larger than current ones, & they were initially designed for installation in vehicles only, which is why they were called the car phone. These chunky units were later converted for use as transportable phones the size of a small suitcase & the rest is history.

2nd Generation cell phones:
Second generation, also called 2-G, mobile telephones were introduced in the nineties. 2-G telephone systems were different because of their use of digital circuit switched transmission & the introduction of advanced & quick telephone to network signals. The introduction of 2-G systems saw telephones move from historic 1G telephones to small hand held items, which were much more portable. This change was made possible through improvements in technology such as more advanced batteries & energy efficient electronics.

The second generation mobile telephones had several advantages over 1G item. These included SMS messaging, which initially became possible on GSM networks & eventually on all digital networks. The very first machine-sent message was sent in Great Britain in 1991. The very first person-to-person SMS text message was sent in 1993 in Finland. SMS text messaging soon became the communication method of choice & the general public now prefers sending messages to placing voice calls.

3rd Generation Cell phones:
3-G is the third generation of mobile phone standards & technology, which succeeded 2-G mobile technology. The birth of 3-G technologies enabled network operators including orange to give their users a wider range of advanced services. This includes broadband internet, in addition to high-tech video calls.

4th Generation Cell phones:
Despite the success of 3-G, there has also been many complaints about it. These include criticism over the cost of 3G phones, a lack of network coverage because it 's still a new service & the high power usage of 3G phones.
Ever since the launch of 3G mobile telephone technology, people have been discussing 4-G. 4-G technology will signify the future of mobile telephones, producing the most advanced handsets & best services to date. In actual fact, one of the next services to be developed is thought to be the live streaming of radio and television shows to 3G handsets is & businesses including Disney & Real recently announced that they 'll be offering services like these.

Cell phones have done through several of the development stages and had eventually become the need for every man nowadays. The research into cell phones is quite meaningful and our paper focuses it through the choices of college students.

Why College Students?
Cell phone market is growing daily and rapidly. Over the years Cell phones have reached through areas where connections or access was considered impossible. Cell phones keep up the social network. As the market of cell phones is quite diverse. The study of Cell phones can hence be more effectively done if broken into parts. Cell phones have are used by young (nowadays), youth, mid aged, Business professionals, Government agencies, etc. However what matters is how they use the cell phones and for what purpose.
As stated above that the market segmentation of cell phones is complicated and diverse so study of cell phones cannot take place by taking into account all factors simultaneously.
Our paper hence for focuses on the College students prioritizing of Cell phones Choices.
The way the college students arrange their choices of cell phones makes a difference when studying the demand of cell phones of students. Unlike others the college students’ treat the cell phones totally differently.
College students nowadays are showing a change in traditional trends. Whereas the use of cell phones have on one hand increased in daily life, on the other hand the use for which cell phones were once used have also changed.
The traditional use of cell phones was to make calls and stay connected with the remote server. However current cell phones come equipped with not only a call function but the list can be shortened to:
1: Camera
2:MP3 Player
3: Video
4: Bluetooth
5: Social media applications
6: Email Applications
7: Java (Games)
8: Calendar/Organizer
9: Google maps
10: Application Store
11: Document Reader etc

These features form a latest cell phone.

BUT WHY COLLEGE STUDENTS
College students form part of our global youth.
Youth characteristics and trends
There were over 103 million combined users of cell phones in USA, Canada, Australia, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan, U.K and the number is expected to grow to 152 million after 2004. These also comprise the heavyweight texters of the world, sending 3 billion text messages between them (as of January 2002) rising to a staggering 7.8 billion text messages within two years rise of 156 per cent. The USA and Canada will be the highest growth markets, with China following closely behind.

Youth spend up to 13.5 per cent of their disposable incomes on mobile products in developed markets. In 2000, American teens spent USD 155 billion, or an average of USD 84 per week, according to TRU. By the end of the 2003, about 104 million young people (who represent 44 per cent of the total population in these markets) were spending about USD 11 billion just on short message service (SMS) applications alone (including mobile e-mail), according to a study undertaken by Wireless World Forum.
Youth hence form a integral part of cell phone market. So the study of the college students forms an important part of strategic planning. College students’ trends vary a lot from that of adults. It is said that adults use the cell phones for voice while youth use it for texting. College students make a lot of use of camera and multimedia. Some game lovers have their cell phones crowded with java apps and games. For gaming iphones and Nokia n series are popular among youth.
As youth shows unique characteristics and trends so their study and survey is important for analysis of cell phones choices. Our reason for choosing the topic was also the importance that it holds.

Research/Results
The Research was based on questionnaires and individual questioning from university students.
The questionnaire has been attached with the research papers This survey was distributed among 100 students. Their answer forms the part of our survey and research.
The research shows that majority people would like to have the touch screen phones and then on second number people preferred smart phones. The students were given 5 brands of cell phones. Among them the maximum number has chosen Nokia and then Samsung. High number of students also preferred brands like iphones a lot and HTC. Few also preferred the Google phones.
When asked about how often they changed their cell phones. The survey showed that more than 60 percent students change their cell phones every year. While majority hold the same cell phones. Very few changed every month.
The choice of cell phone depends on how much you are willing to spend on it. Majority of the students replied that price doesn’t matter to them when buying the cell phones. While after that majority students ticked the price range of RS 5000-12000.
The design of cell phones was also a motivating factor in prioritizing the cell phone choices. To more than 85 percent the same and design mattered.
As talked earlier the youths are said to be texters and the same result is shown here in our college students survey that majority of the students replied that mostly they use their cell phones for texting. After texting the next use was calls.
Size of the cell phones also matters a lot to youth because they are fashion conscious. Majority of people chooses Medium sized phones while large phones were the preference of only a few.

The data has been shaped into pie chart which shows the results more accurately.

Pie Chart
1. What types of phones would you like to have?

2. What brand do you prefer?

3. How often you change your mobile?

4. How much you are willing to spend on your purchase of cell phone?

5. Is design of a Mobile Phone important for you?

6. You often use your phone to:

7. What size of the handset would you prefer?

8. On what basis you choose a cell phone model?

Conclusion:
Cell phones have captured the entire global market. Its importance can be judged from the fact that in the survey report all students possessed cell phones and all were very familiar with its features and other uses. Cell phones market is largely surrounded by college students who are fanaticized by its other features. In The results are shown in the report and individual pie charts are also shown for each question response.

References: http://irssh.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/23_IRSSH-200-V2N2.9010410.pdf www.googlescholar.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Youth-Culture-and-Cell-Phones&id=1096591

References: http://irssh.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/23_IRSSH-200-V2N2.9010410.pdf www.googlescholar.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Youth-Culture-and-Cell-Phones&id=1096591