International Journal on New Computer Architectures and Their Applications (IJNCAA) 2(1): 275-286 The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications, 2012 (ISSN: 2220-9085) 275 A Study of the Trend of Smartphone and its Usage Behavior in Malaysia Mohd Azam Osman 1 , Abdullah Zawawi Talib 1 , Zainal Abidin Sanusi 2 , Tan Shiang-Yen 1 , Abdullah Sani Alwi 3 1 School of Computer Sciences Universiti Sains Malaysia 11800 USM, Pulau Pinang, MALAYSIA 2 Center of Global Sustainability Studies Universiti Sains Malaysia 11800 USM, Pulau Pinang, MALAYSIA 3 Strategy Department & Creative Industrial Policy MSC Malaysia 63000 Cyber Jaya, Selangor MALAYSIA azam@cs.usm.my, azht@cs.usm.my, zainals@usm.my, tsy09_com036@student.usm.my, sanialwi@mdec.com.my ABSTRACT The purpose of this exploratory study is to better understand the current dynamics of the Malaysian market for smartphone and the usage behaviors of consumers. This paper presents the result of a survey on the trend of smartphone from the perspective of end consumers. The data was collected from 1814 respondents across major cities in Malaysia. This study has looked into the familiarity of users towards smartphones, choices of smartphone brand and service providers, and most importantly the determinants that influence their purchasing decision. Additionally, the consumers‟ preferences on smartphone specifications such as design, computing power, operating platform, and price were investigated. Furthermore, consumers‟ usage behaviors such as using smartphone for email, web browsing, gaming, and document reading were examined. The statistics presented provides fundamental information regarding the trends in the smartphone market and usage behaviors in Malaysia. Such information are useful for academics for the development of future works in the field, whereas for smartphone manufacturers, application developers and other stakeholders, they are able to plan their direction in the Malaysian smartphone market. KEYWORDS Mobile phone, Smartphone, Usage behavior, Market survey, Consumers study 1 INTRODUCTION Mobile phone usage has proliferated in recent years. Some areas of the world have enjoyed rapid deployment and high penetration of mobile telephony. 70% of the world‟s population own at least one mobile phone. Based on the statistics, children in United States now are more likely to own a mobile phone than a book, with 85% of kids owning a phone as to only 73% owning books [1]. Without exception, Malaysia is one of the countries riding the wave of telecommunication evolution. Mobile phone usage in Malaysia has gained the ever increasing momentum. It is reported that 85% of Malaysians own mobile phone(s) [2]. Most of the mobile phones nowadays are addressed as „smartphone‟, as they offer more advanced computing power and connectivity than a contemporary mobile phone. Along with the smartphone fundamental capabilities to make voice call, video call, SMS, and MMS, smartphones have been repositioned as a “new information medium” [3]. In other words, smartphones have extended list of