Background Information

 

We began our search for related studies on the proportions of specific kinds of phones in specific demographics by using the Google search engines. The exact keywords we used were “smart phone proportions.” This phrase failed miserably; the majority of articles that Google provided were concerning the physical proportions of smart phones in terms of their dimensions, as opposed to the proportions of smart phones in the population.

            As a result, we supplemented our keyword with “in American population.” However, instead of searching this, Google suggested a potentially more effective set of keywords as “proportion of smart phone users.” This search was clearly more successful.

            The first website available (http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/its-android-or-apple-71-percent-us-smartphone-users-118828) on this search was a related study reported by NBC News that was conducted by Nielsen, which is a leading global market company that provides extensive information on products purchased by the population. The study indicated that, as of the third quarter of 2011, 44 percent of all mobile subscribers in the United States had smart phones. This is relevant to our study because, as the survey is random, we must be prepared to have students respond to our questionnaire without selecting either Apple or Android for lack of owning a smart phone. The study continues, explaining that of the 44 percent of Americans who do own a smart phone, 42.8% own Androids while 28.3% own iPhones. The article continued to shed light on what precisely our categories of “Androids” and “iPhone” contained.

            Since the inception of the study, we had assumed that “Androids” only referred to Samsungs. However, the Nielsen study indicated that there were several brands of phones that could support the Android operating system. As a result, in our study, we must incorporate HTC, Samsung, and Motorola as the main sub-categories in the “Android” realm. Other brands could potentially operate on the Android operating system. Conversely, the “iPhone” category is far simpler, as only iPhone devices can utilize the iPhone’s operating system.

            The other element of the study that we hope to analyze is whether or not there is a disjoint between preference of Android and iPhone between men and women. Initially, we typed “smart phone preference by gender” into the Google search engine. This was not effective, however, because Google misinterpreted the meaning of the keywords, returning articles that suggested that men are more likely to use smart phones because 49% of males use them while only 44% of females use them. However, further searching along this phrase yielded an article by business insider (http://www.businessinsider.com/men-want-android-women-prefer-iphone-2010-12) which indicated that women tend to prefer iPhones while men tend to prefer Androids. This conclusion is based off of a 2010 study also conducted by Nielsen group on 9200 individuals. The study indicated that 33% of men use Androids while only 29% of men use iPhones. On the other hand, 31% of women use iPhones while only 23% of women use Androids.

            Both studies provided valuable insight for the study that our group will be conducting in the high school. Based on the information provided in the study, we are able to hypothesize that more students in North Olmsted High School will elect to use some sort of Android over an iPhone. However, based on the second study, we can predict that the majority of females at NOHS will use an iPhone while the majority of males will use an Android. Our study is unique from these two because it targets a specific audience, namely adolescents in a specific high school, and so it could potentially yield differing results to those of the Nielsen studies.