REVATHY RAJASEKARAN et al.: CONSUMERS PERCEPTION AND PREFERENCE TOWARDS SMARTPHONE DOI: 10.21917/ijms.2018.0106 788 CONSUMERS PERCEPTION AND PREFERENCE TOWARDS SMARTPHONE Revathy Rajasekaran, S. Cindhana and C. Anandha Priya Department of Management Studies, V.V. Vanniaperumal College for Women, India Abstract Smartphone usage has proliferated in recent years. Nowadays people seem to become dependent towards Smartphone due to its convenience, great camera features, easy applications installations, and more importantly, it can do most of the computer functions on the go. In this technology and competitive era, this study aims to explore the key factors which motivate consumers to purchase and use Smart Phones. Further, the reason behind usage of smart phone is found and to identify the customer attitude towards smart phone and finally to know the customer’s satisfaction level towards smart phones. This study is more essential for Smartphone companies as their sales and profit will be depend upon on customer perception. Overall this study will facilitate the improvement of Smartphone industry in the view of customer perception and their attitude. Keywords: Smartphone, Consumer Perception, Marketing Strategy 1. INTRODUCTION In this global era, technology has become an integral part in our lives. The saying ‘world is at your fingertips’ has become predominant nowadays. From desktop to laptops, technology has further minimized to smartphones. Smartphone usage has proliferated in recent years. Some areas of the world have enjoyed rapid deployment and high penetration of mobile telephony [1]. 70% of the world’s population own at least one Smartphone. In today’s society, people are becoming more and more rely on technology especially when communicating with others. Smartphone industry has been booming since 1983. Since then, there have been many large mobile phone companies stepping their foot into the industry. Western Smartphone makers, like Apple and Google, are increasingly looking east for growth, giving countries like India significant influence over the sorts of features they build into their phones. India has the fastest-growing smartphone market in the world, accounting for 27.5 million devices sold in the second quarter of 2016, smartphone shipments in India grew 23 per cent annually in the third quarter of 2016 as compared to the global Smartphone market which grew at five percent, up according to IDC. Everybody is looking at India as a huge landing ground for their innovation and also as a next big step in that part of the world. Thus, Smartphone market in India has huge competition. Each and every brand offers various features and is targeting to different needs of the customer therefore it is important to study the perception of Smartphone user. This research is carried to understand the various factors which influence the purchase intension of the consumer and also helps to understand the mindset of different consumers while buying a smart phone. 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE The various literature related to the consumer attitude towards smartphone were studied for this study some of them are, Osman et al. [1] concluded that the selling price is not the most important factor that affects smartphone purchasing decision, whereas the consumers perceive other factors such as design, connectivity, and performance to be more important than the price. Kaushal and Kumar [3] inferred that the consumers are using or want to purchase Smartphone because their social circle is using it and hence they are also motivated and inspired to use Smart phone. Nagarkoti [2] found that customers pay huge money in smart phones for latest technology and for brands. Mohan [5] conducted a survey and his findings were Smartphone is just not only the want of customer but a need. Moreover, consumer perceives brand image while purchasing smartphone and few consumers in Indian market are brand loyal. Liao [4] concluded that when buying a smartphone, a consumer sees the brand image more than other factor such as design, integration of hardware and software, file transfer and display, price of additional, purchase, price of the phone and camera. Rani and Sharma [6] found that the maximum users purchased the Smartphone for work related purpose. The price, performance, design and quality factors play an important role for smartphone purchase. Malviya et al. [7] found that people in Indore are buying Smartphones irrespective of its prices. He also added that features like brand, social image, technology and durability are playing major role in buying decisions of consumers in Indore. 3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The main objectives of the study are: • To explore the key factors which motivate consumers to purchase and use Smart Phones • To find the reason behind usage of smart phone. • To identify the customer attitude towards smart phone. • To know the customer satisfaction level of the smart phones. 4. DATA AND METHODOLOGY A Research design provides a scientific framework for conducting research investigation. The study is exploratory in nature. The primary data was collected from the users of Smartphone who were the students, businessmen, house wife and