Use of Mobile Devices

A study was carried out in Singapore to investigate the extent to which mobile devices are used in e-commerce compared to fixed-network devices. Singapore was chosen due to the fact that it has one of the highest numbers of mobile devices users in the world. A number of factors were taken in consideration when conducting the survey. Some of these factors included user understanding and awareness of m-commerce, use of electronic devices, the features available in mobile devices, and the types of information and services accessed by different users. Some of the factors taken into consideration when comparing mobile devices with the fixed-network devices included sound effects, multimedia, user-friendliness of the user-interface, navigation, speed of access, user preferences, convenience of use, security, and size of the screen. It is also assumed that m-commerce users are computer literate, educated, and equipped with minimum knowledge of the WAP and mobile devices. The study involved 50 users in which 41 users responded to the survey. The other nine targeted were not available due to overseas engagements at the time of the study.

Frequency and Usage of Features on Various Devices

Mobile phones: The study found that among the 41 respondents that participated in the survey, 68% use mobile phones daily, 15% use mobile phones at least once a week, while the other 17% does not use mobile phones at all (Table 1). None of the respondents fell under the category of mobile phone usage of at least once a month or more. Among the various devices that were used daily, mobile phone usage recorded the highest percentage (68%), followed by desktop usage (63%), followed by laptop usage, which made up 41%, and another 20% used PDAs. "Others" usage (included pagers and digital organizers) registered 22% of the total number of responses. It was clear that many users used more than one device, such as pagers, hand phones, laptops, and so on.

Table 1: Frequency and Usage of All Devices
Frequency	Every day	At least once a week	At least once a month	Less often	Not at all
Mobile phone	68%	15%	0%	0%	17%
PDA	20%	0%	0%	12%	68%
Laptop	41%	3%	3%	7%	46%
Desktop	63%	19%	3%	3%	12%
Others	22%	0%	0%	3%	76%

Among those who used mobile phones daily, 40% of the respondents used SMS and 7% accessed the Internet on a daily basis. We noticed that, apart from the basic functions of a hand phone (i.e., providing voice communication), users were using data communications features such as SMS and Internet. Many of the respondents may find sending messages (as compared to speaking over the phone) much more effective and cheaper, especially when the message is clear, and the conversation is short. Given that the cost of sending messages is low, and in many cases is free, for people on the move, the ability to perform simple online transactions (e.g., trading shares and getting weather forecasts) via the Internet with the help of mobile gadgets is attractive.

PDAs: The study found that PDAs are less used compared to hand phones (Table 2). Out of those who used PDAs daily, 55% cited calendaring as the most frequently used feature, while 18% used it as a calculator most of the time. The increasing popularity of PDAs is due to the switch from the manual recording of appointments on paper to using PDAs. PDAs provide multiple functionalities, such as calculations and recording of appointments. PDAs have been rather popular among the respondents simply because they can find a combination of features, such as calculators, address books, and games. Only 9% of the respondents used the Internet daily on their PDAs, which indicates that the Internet is still not the most popular feature used in PDAs. One of the possible reasons could be that such Internet features may not be available in the PDA models they are using, or the users are simply not aware of such feature. Other features specified by participants were scratchpads, spreadsheets, and notestakers on PDAs.

Table 2: Frequency and Usage of Features for PDA
Frequency	Every day	At least once a week	At least once a month	Less often	Not at all
SMS	9%	18%	9%	0%	64%
Infrared	9%	45%	0%	18%	28%
Calendar	55%	18%	9%	9%	9%
Games	9%	18%	9%	27%	6%
Internet	9%	18%	0%	0%	72%
Calculator	18%	45%	9%	9%	18%
Others	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%

Laptops: Laptop usage, on the other hand, seems to be more popular. The study found that 41% of the respondents use laptops daily, 3% use them at least once a week, another 3% use them at least once a month, 7% less often, and 46% do not use the laptop at all (Table 3). The feature that recorded the highest daily usage rate by those surveyed (92%) was the Internet, and the next most-used feature was e-mail (80%). With the Internet and e-mail being the most desired features for laptop users, a similar trend as that of the desktop is shown. We expected such similarity because laptops and desktops provide basically the same functions, except for the fact that laptops are portable.

Table 3: Frequency and Usage of Features for Laptops
Frequency	Every day	At least once a week	At least once a month	Less often	Not at all
E-mail	80%	4%	0%	4%	8%
Infrared	4%	6%	8%	20%	52%
Calendar	28%	12%	4%	20%	36%
Games	4%	0%	8%	36%	52%
Internet	92%	0%	0%	4%	4%
Calculator	4%	20%	4%	52%	20%
Others	12%	8%	0%	8%	72%

Desktops: Desktops are still the most popular platform for accessing the Internet. The study found that 63% of those surveyed use the desktop daily, 19% use the desktop at least once a week, 3% of the respondents use the desktop at least once a month, 3% use it less often, and only 12% do not use a desktop at all (Table 4). This shows that the desktop is the second most-used device as compared to the mobile phone. This is inevitable, as desktops are still the essential and conventional devices used in the office and at home. Out of the 63% who use the desktop daily, 75% access e-mail and 49% access the Internet daily. On a weekly basis, 27% and 9%, respectively, will access the Internet and e-mail. Besides e-mail and the Internet, the other features used and specified by respondents are word processors, spreadsheets, programming, and games.

Table 4: Frequency and Usage of Features for Desktop
Frequency	Every day	At least once a week	At least once a month	Less often	Not at all
E-mail	75%	9%	6%	6%	3%
Calendar	15%	15%	6%	39%	25%
Games	12%	27%	15%	30%	16%
Internet	49%	27%	12%	6%	6%
Calculator	15%	12%	9%	40%	24%
Others	3%	0%	0%	3%	94%

Use of Internet on Various Devices

Use of the Internet on the desktop had the highest number of respondents (64%), followed by the laptop (37%), and then the mobile phone (12%) (Table 5). In terms of user preference of devices in accessing the Internet, users still prefer to use the desktop 69%, followed by laptop 39%, then mobile phone 3%. This shows that the desktop is still the preferred device for daily use of the Internet.

Table 5: Frequency of Usage of Internet on Various Devices
Frequency	Every day	At least once a week	At least once a month	Less often	Not all all
Mobile phone	12%	0%	0%	0%	88%
PDA	7%	2%	0%	0%	91%
Laptop	37%	5%	0%	5%	53%
Desktop	64%	15%	7%	2%	12%
Others	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%

Table 6 shows that the main purpose for accessing the Internet for most of the respondents is e-mail (90% of the respondents), followed by online news (85% of the respondents), and online shopping (46% of the respondents). This shows that e-mail became an essential communication tool. Internet news and online shopping are getting more popular. The less-preferred online services include accessing for online games (21% of respondents), restaurant/hotel reservations (18% of respondents), flight schedule checking (33% of respondents), as well as booking airlines or entertainment (28% of respondents).

Table 6: Purposes for Accessing the Internet
Purpose of use	Number of respondents (%)
Participate in chat room or news group	33
Access e-mail	90
Conduct finance or banking transactions	41
Shop	46
Obtain stock quotes and purchase	38
Look for news	85
Look at advertisements	38
Look for jobs	44
Access music/movie clips	41
Book airline or concert/event/movie tickets	28
Make restaurant/hotel reservations	18
Obtain movie listings	36
Play games	21
Check flight schedules	33
Check weather	31
Others	10

Other reasons for accessing the Internet besides those mentioned above include participation in chat rooms or news groups (33% of respondents), conducting finance or banking transactions (41% of respondents), obtaining stock quotes and purchasing (38% of respondents), accessing online advertisements (38% of respondents), conducting online job hunts (44% of respondents), accessing music/movie clips (41% of respondents), obtaining movie listings (36% of respondents), checking the weather forecast (31% of respondents), and other online services (10% of respondents).

Table 7: Priority of Usage of the Internet on Various Devices
Priority	1	2	3	4	5
Mobile phone	3%	12%	6%	0%	0%
PDA	0%	0%	12%	3%	0%
Laptop	39%	9%	0%	3%	0%
Desktop	69%	27%	3%	3%	0%
Others	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%

WAP and Mobile Devices Usage Versus Fixed Network

For those who used the WAP on electronic gadgets, half of the respondents (50%) remain neutral with regard to the problem of navigation. However, the majority of the remaining half (33%) found no problem in navigating the Internet using mobile devices. The study also found that the majority of the respondents (50% of the WAP users) prefer to access the Internet via the desktop. Only 17% of the users preferred otherwise. Reasons pertaining to user interface, convenience of use, security, user-friendliness of user-interface, and speed of access, probably explain such a preference.

In terms of convenience, 33% of the respondents agreed that accessing the Internet via WAP and mobile devices is more convenient as compared to desktops and fixed networks. Another 33% remain neutral, while 34% disagreed. This indicates that the wireless network is more convenient for users to use to access information. On the other hand, 91% agreed that they do not have a problem navigating the Internet through fixed networks using a desktop. This indicates that respondents are more comfortable navigating the Internet using a desktop. Probably, WAP developers could find the points that desktop users are comfortable with and improve navigation on the mobile devices.

On security issues like how to secure the WAP compared to fixed networks, 50% of respondents were neutral, while 17% agreed, and 33% disagreed on whether security is an issue in accessing the Internet. The majority of respondents, 47%, strongly agreed, and 39% agreed that security is an issue on the Internet. This pointed to the need for WAP developers and implementers to improve on the security so as to attract WAP users or even non-WAP users to use wireless technology for accessing the Internet. However, the majority of respondents (61% of the respondents) remains neutral regarding whether using a desktop network to access the Internet is more secure. Of them, 6% strongly agree, 25% agree, and 8% disagree. This indicates that users are still more inclined toward the thinking that using a desktop network to access the Internet is more secure.

With regard to user-friendliness of WAP and mobile devices, 66% of the users agreed that user interfaces are not friendly and are hard to use on mobile devices. Only 17% agreed that the user interfaces are friendly, while the remaining 17% were neutral. This suggests that a lot of work needs to be done to improve user interfaces on mobile devices. On the comparison of the speed acceptability for Internet access through WAP and fixed networks, 33% of the respondents agreed, while 33% disagreed. This shows that users at this stage are not much worried about speed. This may be due to the fact that WAP and mobile devices still have limited functionality, and users do not see the need for faster services. With regard to respondents' opinions on the need for further software development to improve WAP and mobile devices services, 66% agreed. This shows that a lot of work still needs to be done to meet the users' needs.

The designs of the different electronic gadgets are taken into consideration as well. Most of the respondents, 56%, agreed that the size of the screen on mobile devices is still not acceptable. The larger percentage that disagreed found that the screen size on mobile devices imposed many restrictions on the functionality and the user-interface. There are, however, 33% of respondents who think that the screen size is an issue, and they can live with it. The majority of those surveyed 59% did not agree that the sound effects on mobile devices are acceptable. They all indicated that further improvement is needed. This is the same with multimedia capabilities, in which 71% agreed that mobile devices are yet to catch up with those available on desktops and fixed networks.

Use of Mobile Devices