Introduction
In 2014, despite the disappointing decrease in earnings of the mobile phones department and unconvincing performance of flagship Galaxy S5 sales, the Samsung company has succeeded in the US on the part of gaining the confidence of the market to the very brand by consumers. Thus, according to the results of a large study conducted in the US market, the Samsung took over the honorary title of the most revered manufacturer of mobile devices from the Apple Inc.. Annually updated index of consumer satisfaction (American Consumer Satisfaction Index), which is responsible for the accuracy of experts at Michigan State University, showed that 81% of buyers of Samsung's mobile division products pleased with our choice - it is 6% better than last year. In the case of Apple, there is loss of confidence in the brand from 81% to 79%.
At the end of 2015, according to a new study conducted for the annual ranking of the ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index), American users find the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 smartphone as the most satisfactory of all the countries represented at the market. The survey took 70 thousand respondents participated. On a scale from 0 to 100 points, US residents evaluated the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to 86 points. Following the 5.7-inch gadget, the next place was taken by its “fellow” Galaxy Note 3, Apple smartphones iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S5 (all with a score of 82 points). The survey results indicate that Americans are generally satisfied with their phablets, since three of the five top smartphones have a screen diagonal of at least 5.5 inches.
In the “race of manufacturers”, Apple and Samsung are nearly on the same level - both companies managed to exceed the mark of 80 points. After them goes Motorola (79 points), BlackBerry (78 points) and HTC (77 points).
Most American users like the ease with which smartphones allow you to send and receive messages (this functionality was valued at 85 points), important are the size and design of the devices, as well as ease of making and receiving calls. Among the shortcomings, the consumers distinguish the short battery life - this characteristic has earned only 74 points. This explains why people prefer smartphones of an impressive size - the larger body means having a more capacious battery, a charge of which lasts for two days. Along with other users as indicated disadvantages sound quality. Most smartphones speakers are placed in the bottom of the gadget, which is why the sound is often not extend in the desired direction.
The idea of the exploration of the mobile industry is a broad scientific interest. In our work we try to consider the relationship of Apple and Samsung mobile phone users’ preferences and various social and economic factors.
Data Collection
One of the most time-consuming and the costliest steps of any research is the search and collection of information on the researched topic. Any research is based on primary data (in other words, the newly received data for a particular study problem). The main advantages of primary information: data are collected in strict accordance with the precise objectives of the research problem; methodology of data collection is strictly controlled. The main disadvantage of collecting is that information is of significant costs of material and labor resources. Often, the practical realization of any type of research requires a holistic approach combining quantitative and qualitative techniques.
Quantitative research is the primary tool the necessary information for planning and decision-making when appropriate hypotheses about the behavior of consumers have already been formed. The basis of quantitative research methods is always precise mathematical and statistical models that make a result to have no views and assumptions. The results are accurate quantitative (numerical) values of the studied parameters. Based on the results of quantitative research, it may be necessary to calculate the production volumes, profitability, price, product options to find an unoccupied niche of a market and much more. The main merit of quantitative research is that they reduce the risk of making wrong decisions and choices inaccurate scheduling options.
Qualitative research, in contrast to quantitative is focused not on statistical measurements. It is based on the understanding, explanation and interpretation of empirical data and are the source of hypotheses and productive ideas. Simply put, it does not respond to the question "how much?" The questions of a qualitative research are "what?" "how?" and “why?". In qualitative research, there are widely used projective and stimulating techniques - unstructured, non-legislative ways of asking questions that help the researcher to uncover the motives, beliefs, attitudes, relationships, preferences, values, degree of satisfaction, the problems of the respondents, etc. (for example, regarding the products or brands). Projective techniques help to overcome such difficulties of communication, as the verbalization of feelings, attitudes, etc., as well as the identification of latent motives implicit plants displaced by the senses, and so forth.
76 individuals were involved in our survey, which is more than what we were required to get. The individuals have responded the given questions and their answers were recorded. There were three variables participated in this research: age, gender and nationality. The following research topics were explored based on the respondents’ data:
Comparison of phone ownership by gender
Comparison of Apple and Samsung services
The association between the price of phones and customers’ gender
The distribution of smartphones among the regions
The distribution of the quality of services among the regions
Estimation the quality of applications by gender
Camera quality estimation by gender
Method
We interpreted and analyzed the information gathered from the survey by using histograms and Chi-square test.
With a large number of observations (in the hundreds) simple statistical population ceases to be a convenient form of statistical data recording - it becomes too cumbersome and inconvenient. To make it more compact, the statistical data should be processed – a statistical series should be constructed. The statistical series is often made out graphically in the form of a histogram. For the construction of a histogram, the frequency of each category should be divided by its length and the resulting number is taken as the height of the rectangle. In case of equal length of the discharge height of the rectangles are proportional to the respective frequencies.
In order to identify differences in the distributions of the factors in two empirical samples compared with the theoretical distribution, Pearson’s Chi-square test is used. Chi-Square has many applications and is primarily used to test hypotheses of independence, goodness of fit and homogeneity. All calculations of the Chi-square test have been performed in Excel. Greater than or equal to 5% or 0.05 value indicates that there is no significant difference between the groups in the results. Less than 5% or 0.05 indicates that there is a significant difference.
Results
The results were obtained for each research topic stated in the introduction section.
Comparison of phone ownership by gender
The Chi-square test indicated that 8.75% is a statistical significance which is not considerably significant and there is 8.75% chance of difference between Apple and the Samsung in terms of the phone type owner. We also found that the gender impacts of choosing the type of the phone and we predicted that most of the people in both genders they are Apple users and we can say that Apple leads in both female and male.
Comparison of Apple and Samsung services
The Chi-Square test in indicated the probability of 22.18%, which is nearly 22.18% chance that there is a significant difference between Apple and Samsung in terms of service of the company. We predicted that Apple will lead in Company service but we got that Samsung users are more satisfied with their company service. Only few of Apple users finds that the service is Excellent.
The association between the price of phones and customers’ gender
We got in the Chi-Square test probability of 50% chance that there is no significant difference of Male and Female in terms of phone price. We predicted that there will be a significant difference between the phone price in terms of gender, but we found that it is not important and it is incorrect. It means that the price is not important to Males and Females in terms of phone price.
The distribution of smartphones among the regions
We got 20% in the Chi-square test. It says that there is a 20% chance that there is a nearly significant difference of Region in terms of Smart phones. It is considered as valuable information even though it is more than 5% and we predicted in the first place that Apple users are dominant and in all the regions and that is what we got, however Asian respondents have an equal quantity of Apple and Samsung phones.
The distribution of the quality of services among the regions
The Chi-Square test indicated the probability of 67.87%, which means that there is no significant difference between region to service. The majority of regions got good service with their companies and we predicted that most people in the region will be satisfied with their phone service and that is what we got from the graph.
Estimation the quality of applications by gender
The Chi-square test showed a chance of 65.54% and that means there is no significant difference in terms of quality of Apps between Apple and Samsung in terms of gender. We predicted that both male and females are satisfied with their quality of apps and that is what we got on the graph.
Camera quality estimation by gender
The Chi-Square Test indicated the value of 38%, which is a statistical significant value. It is not considerably significant and there is a 38% chance of the difference between gender to the quality of the camera. We predicted that both genders are satisfied with the quality of the camera in their phone.
Conclusions
Our findings have indicated that Apple is the leading brand between the two companies globally. It has also contradicted with our prediction that Samsung should differentiate more to compete with Apple, mostly due to Samsung providing a higher variety of products. Samsung should look for a way to retain/maintain their customers. For further research, another question arose after analyzing: do older youths influence the buying behavior of younger ones?
