Determination of smartphone brand pereferences via Markov chain analysis: a case study on university 1st -graders

Abstract

Smart phones that are getting functional as much as computers coupled with the development in technology are the most frequently used communication instruments in our lives. This widespread use of smartphones has enabled them to focus on consumer work by influencing the efforts of manufacturers to prioritize brands. The purpose of this study is to determine smartphone preferences and to estimate the market share of mobile phone manufacturers in the long term by determining the transitions between the intended brands. The extensive usage of smart phones, ensure the producing companies efforts affectionally to focus towards consumers to bring their brands into the forefront. To determine the smart phone brand preference a questionnaire is conducted on 200 first grade students in the university departments Applied Sciences International Trade and Banking and Finance department in Celal Bayar University. From all this questionnaires, it is seen that 153 questionnaires could be used because of missing data. Participants of the questionnaires are asked about their currently used smart phone brands and the previously used smart phone brands. The Markov Chains are used in the analyze of the smart phone brand preferences. The Markov transition probability matrixes are constituted considering the numbers between the transitions from a smart phone to another smart phone brand. Among the phone brands that students have used before, Samsung maintains leadership with 47%, followed by Nokia with 18 %, iPhone with 15.6% and Sony with 6,5 % . Among the phone brands used by students at the moment, Samsung has reached 32% with the iPhone, 27% with the iPhone, 12.4% with LG and 8.4% with GM. After the analyses it is concluded that the most preferred brands would be 45 % for Iphone, 24% for Samsung, 10% for LG, 6% for General Motors and 5% for Sony in long term.