Value of Mobile Phones for Tanzanian University Students

Author(s):  
Susanne Mäkelä

Mobile phones have become highly popular both in industrialised and developing world. In developing countries, previous studies of why people value mobile phones have focused on the financial benefits of mobile phone and user groups such as farmers or entrepreneurs. This paper presents a mixed-method study on how university students in Iringa, Tanzania value mobile phones. The study discovered a number of positive and negative value factors that define the worth of mobile phones for Tanzanian students, and shows how the factors are tied to the physical, social and cultural context of use. The study highlights the importance of understanding what users value and why when designing technology.

Author(s):  
Laura Stark

This chapter surveys and analyzes recent literature on mobile communication to examine its relationship to gender and development, more specifically how women in developing countries use and are impacted by mobile phones. Focusing on issues of power, agency, and social status, the chapter reviews how mobile telephony has been found to be implicated in patriarchal bargaining in different societies, how privacy and control are enabled through it, what benefits have been shown to accrue to women using mobile phones, and what barriers, limitations, and disadvantages of mobile use exist for women and why. The conclusion urges more gender-disaggregated analysis of mobile phone impact and use and offers policy and design recommendations based on the overview and discussion.


Author(s):  
Ho Sew Tiep ◽  
Goh Mei Ling ◽  
Radziah Shaikh Abdullah ◽  
Teo Kim Mui

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, mobile phones has become the utmost preference device for most Malaysian to stay connected. Over the past decades, mobile phone users in this country has been increasing steadily. Percentage of individuals in Malaysia using mobile phones increased from 94.2% in 2013 to 97.5% in 2015 (DOS, 2016). According to the hand phone users survey carried out by MCMC (2017) , there were 42.3 million mobile phone subscriptions with a penetration rate of 131.2% to a population of 32.3 million at the end of 2017. In a study on university students of Malaysia, Ho et al. (2018) revealed that a substantial amount of them (18.83%) actually do not know what to do with the waste mobile phones. This reflects the low awareness amongst university students and the lack of formal management system in Malaysia. Moreover, the findings show the rate of replacements of even functioning phones is high and a significant high stockpile of the waste mobile phones, which in turn increase the generation of e-waste eventually. Tremendous amount of waste mobile phones are expected to be generated in Malaysia. Malaysia is now facing a challenge on how to deal with the ever growing generation of waste mobile phones from users. An insight into their e-waste management practices and key predictors in relation to waste mobile phones recycling intention are therefore essential. This would help to lay the foundation for developing a suitable, workable, effective and efficient system of collecting e-wastes. This study aims to probe into university students' behavioural intentions to recycle waste mobile phones. In the meanwhile, it is expected to derive the policy implications for the future expansion and enhancement of mobile phones recycling response rate. Keywords: Determinants, Mobile Phones, Recycling, Intention, University Students


Author(s):  
Mubarak S. Almutairi

In developing countries like the Saudi Arabia, due to high mobile phone penetration rates, any electronic government initiatives that don’t take mobile technology into account will eventually fail. While the number of landline phones and internet subscribers are growing steadily over the past few years, the number of mobile phone users and its penetration rates are skyrocketing. In the near future and with the many mobile phone features, mobile phones will remain the main media of communication and a main source for providing information to citizens and customers.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Sheikh Taher Abu

Japan has experienced two developmental stages in the mobile telephony innovation since 1979 when the first mobile phone was commercially launched. The stages can be identified as traditional mobile phone with only voice function and mobile phone with IP (Internet Protocol). This paper discusses how mobile phone with IP function offers diversified services, influences people’s daily lives by changing their ways of communication, and interaction by adopting mobile broadband. The paper examines key economic, technology and policy factors based on monthly datasets from 2000-2007 in the provision of both second (2G) and third generation (3G) mobile phones adoption. Particularly, the study uses a linear regression model and presents extended and reduced models using the Pearson correlation method. The results of the empirical study examine how innovations in services contribute to the mobile broadband deployment in Japan. Main findings of this study suggest policy and strategy implications for developing countries which are adopting IP functionality in mobile phones. The paper also presents brief recommendations for India’s 3G mobile phone adoptions in terms of opportunities, challenges, and policies which drive on growth.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-132
Author(s):  
Olabisi Olapoju

Mobile phone use among university students is now pervasively altering their social interaction with others. The study investigated the influence of mobile phone use among commuting University Students on their interaction with co-travellers and the environment through which they travel. Three hundred students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria were purposively sampled to respond to a 10-minute questionnaire. The questionnaire contained questions such as ownership of mobile phones, type and number of phones owned, frequency of usage and the influence of mobile phone usage during transit on interaction between the students and their co-travelers and with the environment they traveled through. Results showed that all the respondents possessed at least one mobile phone. In addition, results revealed a negative correlation between time of use of mobile phone and interaction with co-travelers (α=0.05, r= -0.039) and no significant correlation between length of use of mobile phone and interaction with the environment (α=0.05, r=0.079). The study established that mobile phone intrusiveness has an influence on students' interaction during commuting.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siti Harnani Amir Hushin ◽  
Hasrina Mustafa ◽  
Bahiyah Omar

This study aims to compare the level of perception of using mobile phones at public places among users of four different countries; Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Iran from the perspective of Social Interaction Theory. A survey was conducted on 100 university students from each country that makes up a sample of 400 respondents.  The findings of the study show 1) a significant difference in the perception of mobile phone and SMS usage in public places among respondents from different countries. Unlike Malaysian, Indonesian and Chinese respondents, the results of the study show that Iranian respondents are not too disturbed by the usage of mobile phones at public places. 2) The study also finds that Malaysian and Indonesian respondents seldom use mobile phone in public places, and that Chinese respondents often use mobile phone in public transport (i.e: bus). Meanwhile, Iranian respondents use mobile phone the most in four identified places – the supermarket, bus, pedestrian walkway and restaurant. 3) Most of the respondents in each category, however, prefer to use mobile phone – for making calls and SMS – in multi focused gathering compared to fully focused ones. The study concludes that cultural and geographical factors exert significant influence on the usage and perception of using mobile phone at public places. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 135 ◽  
pp. 105119
Author(s):  
Verity Truelove ◽  
Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios ◽  
James Freeman ◽  
Jeremy Davey

2019 ◽  
Vol 130 ◽  
pp. 01006
Author(s):  
Didik Wahjudi ◽  
Shu-san Gan ◽  
Yopi Yusuf Tanoto ◽  
Jerry Winata ◽  
Benny Tjahjono

Remanufacturing is deemed to be effective in reducing WEEE. Existing studies on remanufacturing mostly focus on operational issues, product acquisition, and pricing. However, some doubts about remanufacturing business arise in developing countries, where there is less regulation on remanufacturing and less environmental awareness. This study aims to investigate the prospects of remanufacturing business from the retailers' perspectives through in-depth interviews on three retailers in Surabaya, Indonesia. The main drivers for mobile phone remanufacturing business are its affordable and competitive price, big demand for popular mobile phones and high-end mobile phone, the opportunity for specification upgrade, and its suitability with the needs of Indonesian people. The main barriers for remanufacturing business are the possibility for cannibalizing new mobile phones' market share, the uncertainty of core supply, discontinuity of replacement part supply, lack of product knowledge among consumers and retailers, hesitation of retailers to sell remanufactured products, and lack of strict and clear regulations about remanufacturing business. Findings of this study provide insights to prospective mobile phone remanufacturers of what needs to be tackled to start a prosperous business. On the theoretical side, it provides complementary knowledge to existing studies that have been conducted mostly on countries that have higher environmental awareness.


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