ABSTRACT
The entry of smartphones into our lives is due to two primary reasons – the rapid advancement in technology and R & D, making present technology redundant within weeks and the drastic drop in prices of smartphones which occur weekly or monthly. The objectives of this paper are: (1) To provide a more holistic view of smartphone users' preference (2) To have depth analysis on how consumers put a premium on various smartphone features application and tools (3) To understand how prospective customers appreciate the good features of the product. Three statistical tools were used: Frequency Distribution to get the profile of the respondent's actual usage of smartphones and attitudes of consumers, Pearson Correlation, and Conjoint analysis, which was used to analyze the preference of the respondents on smartphone attributes. This study showed a moderately fit conjoint model, Pearson R =.742, p<.05, Kendall's Tau was .333, p<.05 and .333, p< .05 for the holdouts. From the given set of attributes, price (47.11%) is the most important, followed by the SIM card slot (19.05%), and the phone plan (9.14%). This paper is the first study done in the Philippines about the usage, attitudes of consumers towards smartphones using conjoint analysis. The analysis would help companies to understand what aspects of their products are essential and irrelevant. Companies will act upon a certain aspect to ensure higher profitability.
Type of Paper: Empirical
Keywords: local government hospitals; Philippines; policy direction; quality patient care
