The study was carried out as a voluntary online survey by using a third-party browser based survey application E-lomake (version 3) to collect quantitative data from music phone users. The survey was available for two weeks between 24 May and 9 June 2010.
Six main topics were covered in the survey: motivation for having a music phone, ways of acquiring and managing music, phone usage (not only the music player but also general use), listening habits and assessing the features of the phone. In addition to those, respondents’ personal information (e.g. age and country of origin) and their mobile phone details were enquired.
The survey consisted of several multiple choice questions (checkboxes and drop-down lists) but also open-ended questions. Some multiple choice questions led to follow-up questions based on the prior answers given by the respondents, ensuring that they only answered questions relevant to them while providing detailed information for the analysis of the survey. In addition, it would keep the survey simpler for the respondents. For example, if the “Buy it from an online store” answer option as the source of the respondent’s digital music was chosen, the survey form presented more detailed questions on the matter. Some of the multiple choice questions allowed the respondents to choose more than one option. For example, when they were asked to reveal if they buy singles, albums or ready-made playlists, the respondents were able to choose more than one option.
3.2. Participants
The survey respondents were solicited from mailing lists within the University of Tampere (mailing lists for international students, and the student organisation for students of mathematics, statistics and computer sciences), and ACM’s (Association for Computing Machinery) international and Finnish sections of the Special Interest Group on Human Computer Interaction.
165 persons submitted their answers. However, 14 submissions were rejected because the respondents did not fulfil the prerequisite of the survey: using their mobile phone to listen to music or the integrated FM radio. Hence the answers of 151 respondents were recorded.
Majority of the respondents were males with 54% share. 97 respondents were from Finland, 22 from the United States, and 3 from Germany. The rest, 29 respondents, were from other countries with 2 or less persons per country.
As Figure 3 shows, 6% of the respondents held a doctorate. Master’s degree was the most common one with 44% while bachelor’s degree was held by 35% of the respondents.
Figure 3. Level of education.
The mean age of the respondents was 30 years with the range from 19 years to 56 years (Table 1). They were divided into four age groups in order to correspond to how people of certain age would use music phones. So, for example, it was assumed that a 31-year-old respondent would use music phones in similar way as 40-year-olds. Also, the number of respondents in the oldest age group is so small that dividing it into, for example, two groups would result in very small age groups. The range of the age groups is shorter in the younger age groups because the difference in behaviour is thought to be more varied the younger the respondents are.
Age Males Females Total Percentage
19-25 17 23 40 26.5%
26-30 23 24 47 31.1%
31-40 36 16 52 34.4%
41-56 6 6 12 7.9%
82 69 151 100.00%
Table 1. Respondents by age and gender.
The respondents’ most common reason, with 58 mentions, to acquire a music-capable mobile phone was to have a single device incorporating telephony and music player features (Figure 4). This allows the respondents to have their music collection with them any time they carry their so-called music phones with them – “I previously used to have separate phone and music player. I wanted to combine these, because usually I listen to music while walking or travelling and previously carried both devices in my pocket or bag”.
However, with 44 mentions the second most common statement by the respondents was that the music player just happened to be a feature on their chosen phone without being the decisive factor when acquiring it: “I didn’t choose, I got this from my work”.
The desire to listen to different audio content (e.g. audiobooks) besides music was the third most common reason with 37 mentions for specifically acquiring a music phone.
33 respondents stated that they acquired a music phone because of other features than the music player – “The phone's other capabilities were more important (WLAN etc.) and the music player was only a bonus”. Purchasing a mobile phone based on its set of features alone has been identified as a major factor in making the purchasing decision, although the users may not use all the functionality after all [Kiljander, 2004, p. 73].
The statements resulted from an open-ended question where the respondents were able to disclose more than a single reason for the motivation behind acquiring a music phone.
Figure 4. Reason for choosing a music phone.
Since 64% of the respondents were from Finland, the home country of Nokia, it is not surprising that Nokia is the most popular phone brand with 81 out of 151 respondents using it (Figure 5). In fact, 84% of every respondent using Nokia are from Finland. Apple and its various iPhone models constitute the second most common brand with 36 phones. Mainly Finnish and American respondents, both with a share of 38.9%, use the iPhone models. Country breakdown shows that Nokia holds 70.1%
share among the Finnish respondents. Similar popularity for the American company Apple can be seen among the respondents from the USA with 63.6% share. 9 respondents own Sony Ericsson, while Samsung and HTC had 7 users each. Motorola is being used by 4, and LG by 3 respondents.
Figure 5. Mobile phone brands among the respondents.