Technology in Society 38 (2014) 103110

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Technology in Society
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/techsoc

Using and buying mobile phones in Jordan: Implications for

future research and the Development of New Methodology
Emad A. Abu-Shanab*, Alaa N. Abu-Baker
Smart-tags Company, Jordan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study investigated two main research questions: 1) What is the degree of mobile
Received 18 February 2012 phone uses in Jordan? 2) Why do Jordanians buy mobile phones? This study shed light on
Received in revised form 12 November 2012 the social behavior of Jordanians with respect to mobile phone use and purchase. The
Accepted 5 March 2014
sample utilized 233 usable responses from diverse classes of people. The results showed
that Jordanians used mobile phones mainly for communication, as an alarm or watch, and
Keywords:
sending messages. In addition, they indicated that the most signicant reasons for buying
Mobile phones
phones were: the existence of phone camera, the easiness of using them, and because they
Jordan
Use and buy of mobile phones
were practical. Finally, 51 major reasons for buying mobile phones were clustered into 11
Grounded theory main categories. The most popular categories were reasons related to phones features,
Clustering techniques then reasons related to performance, and nally, reasons related to price. These clusters
depicted the social behavior of Jordanians in relation to using and purchasing mobile
phones. Conclusions and implications are stated at the end of this paper.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction The growth of mobile phone services in recent years is

There is a rise in the propagation and use of mobile
phones around the world. Using mobile phones may save
time and cut down travel cost through the efciency of
transactions [1]. The number of mobile phone users in the
world reached ve billion by the end of 2010 [2]. Nowadays,
about 90% of the worlds population is covered by a mobile
network, and is likely to reach 100% by 2015. Therefore, its
expected that more than half of the worlds population will
be using mobile phones by 2015 [3]. This trend in usage
implies that Jordanians will continue using mobile phones
and they will be replacing other modes of communications.
Even now, this mobile channel is replacing traditional types
of communication and even face-to-face event-based
types.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: abushanab@yu.edu.jo, abushanab.emad@gmail.com
(E.A. Abu-Shanab), alaa_mis2008@yahoo.com (A.N. Abu-Baker).
volcanic, especially in developing countries [4]. Such growth
is the result of the on-going development of the service,
and the entry of successive generations of such technology
into action. Jordanian telecommunication sector is part of
a huge global and regional industry that brought into the
country new developments and new technology. Such
rms, like Orange and Zain, are pushing new features and
uses of mobiles into the country for the sake of competition
and thus changing the social dynamics of the society.
In spite of having an extensive use of mobile phones
across many countries around the world, there is a de-
ciency in the understanding of its ownership and use pat-
terns by people [58]. There is also a gap in methodological
approaches which reveal the differences between why
customers purchase a technology and how they actually
use it. Mobile phones are not always acquired for their
advanced features or their new offered technology, that,
many people buy advanced mobile phones and dont use
their full features and capabilities [9]. So there is a need to

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2014.03.001
0160-791X/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
104 E.A. Abu-Shanab, A.N. Abu-Baker / Technology in Society 38 (2014) 103110
understand the use patterns so that phones imported are
tailored to the needs of Jordanians. In addition, the devel-
opment of techniques to illuminate the patterns of differ-
ences between purchase and use would expand scholarly
understanding in the area.
Based on this, a mix between grounded theory method
and a structured synthesis technique was adopted to
explore data instances and conclude to a pattern of
behavior with respect to the buying behavior of Jordanian
citizens [10]. The method used in this study classied all
responses related to phone buying reasons into a short list,
and then proposed a set of general category lists.
This paper tries to investigate mobile uses and purchase
patterns in Jordan as one of the most advanced developing
countries in information and communication technology
(ICT). The following section will review the literature related
to mobile use and ownership patterns around the world,
specically in Jordan. Then, the research method and data
analysis and discussion will be reviewed. Finally, conclu-
sions, limitations and future directions related to the com-
mon factors affecting such use and purchase are presented.
2. Literature review
2.1. Mobile phones use research in the world
The mobile phone is considered an important commu-
nication tool. It has become very important in recent years
with the spread of wireless communication networks.
Mobile phones can be considered as an emerging tool in e-
commerce for browsing and payment purposes. Mobile
payment is closely related to trust in the technology and
showed a signicant relationship with the intention to use
such service [11]. Research papers indicated that mobile
phones use and adoption are positively correlated to the
following factors: income, revenue from mobile phones,
mobile network coverage, and digitalization of mobile
phones [4]. Such result is in alignment with the economic
needs of developing countries, especially Jordan, where
low income and the cost of new services are factors that
limit the use of mobile phones.
Many studies have been conducted to investigate the
use of mobile phones. Belwal and Belwal analyzed mobile
phone services use among 179 university level students in
Oman. In their research, they used survey and focused
discussions [12]. Results showed that students have un-
comfortable feelings without their mobiles that they are
switching on their mobile phones all the time because they
are fanatic of being always available. Moreover, group dis-
cussion demonstrated that the most common uses of mo-
bile phones are: making calls, sending short messages
(SMSs), watching videos, listening to music, exchanging
media using Bluetooth technology, using the phone as a
calculator, camera, and dictionary. It was found that stu-
dents prefer prepaid subscriptions and they rely on their
parents to pay their bills. Also, their monthly average
money spending on mobile services was reported to be 10
Omani Rials (25 USD). They make less than 10 phone calls,
and send more than 10 short messages. Finally, Nokia was
the most popular brand used in Oman, even though stu-
dents have a tendency to change their mobile devices to
more modern models inuenced by the desire to own
phones that contain new and modern features. The simi-
larity between the Omani and Jordanian societies implies
that dependent consumers will have similar behaviors and
similar uses of phones.
Zulkey and Baharudin surveyed a sample of 386 stu-
dents from Putra University in Malaysia to investigate the
extent of using mobile phone [13]. The study determined
personal and family factors related to the mobile phone
use. Students spending rate on mobile services was
18.7 USD and time spent was 6 h daily. Sending SMSs was
the most used service. Depending on age and sex, voice
calls were the most commonly used among older students
and females preferred using SMSs. On the other hand,
younger students and males preferred MMS & GPRS mobile
services. Moreover, students descending from high income
families spend more time and money on their mobile
phone use.
Another study at Yazd University in Iran was conducted
using a sample of 309 students selected from medical sci-
ences colleges [8]. The results of the distributed question-
naire showed that students average chatting was (28.3
50.5) minutes daily. They also send (18.837) SMSs per day.
In addition, they listen to music on their mobile phones at a
rate of (51.981.5) minutes each day. Depending on their
location, the percentage of mobile phones use has the
following distribution: at home (87.2%), street (79.6%),
classroom (37.6%), during driving (18.6%) and in the library
(17.8%) [8]. Use patterns distilled from surveys and
measured by percentages are one type of indicators that
reects the degree of technology use within societies. Such
studies are important to better understand the societys
development and economic transformation.
In Hungary, a study utilized 1301 fourth grade school
students discussing their mobile phone ownership and use
who are distributed in three Hungarian cities [14]. The
study found that (76%) owned a mobile phone, (24%) used a
mobile phone daily for voice calls, (33%) used mobile
phones for voice calls several times a week, (5%) sent text
messages daily. Moreover (24%) students sent text mes-
sages several times a week [14]. Differences in use patterns,
reported in the previous mentioned studies, may result
from social and cultural characteristics of the society itself.
2.2. Mobile propagation and ownership in Jordan
Similar to all countries of the world, Jordan has wit-
nessed a huge rate of propagation and use of mobile
phones. Despite its small population and humble economic
conditions, (86.6%) of Jordanians own mobile phones [15].
According to ofcial reports issued by the Telecommuni-
cations Regulatory Commission in 2010, the number of
cellular phone subscribers in Jordan reached (6.25) million
subscribers, and a penetration rate of 103% [16]. Jordanians
are using mobile phones as a way to keep in touch with
their families, friends, colleagues and business associates.
Jordanian cellular market was ranked rst in the intensely
competitive index of the 19 Arab countries discussed by a
study conducted in 2010 [17].
Department of Statistics survey conducted in Jordan
asserted that cell phone service surpassed all the services
 E.A. Abu-Shanab, A.N. Abu-Baker / Technology in Society 38 (2014) 103110
related to the telecommunication technology in the
Kingdom. Mobile phone services entered the houses of
most families in the Kingdom, where it reached (97%) in
2009 compared to (94%) in the previous year [18]. In
addition, the ofcial reports of the Department of Statistics
in Jordan showed that Jordanians spent 1.8 billion call
minutes and exchanged about 1.8 billion SMSs in 2009 [19].
Moreover, Jordanians spent a total of 622 million Jordan
Dinars on cellular services and its organs during the rst
nine months of 2010 [20].
A study in Jordan in 2006/2007 surveyed a sample of
(993) students from nine public and private universities.
The results showed that 87.2% of respondents own mobile
phones. The study revealed signicant use differences
among respondents, due to the following variables: gender
(males more), age (more for (2426) and (27) age groups,
college type (more for the faculties of Science)), and the
academic level (higher for master students) [21].
The dominant use of mobile technology and the
extensive utilization of such service are well noticed in the
Jordanian society. It seems that young dependents are
eager to own mobile phones and are using them in many
different ways. The Jordanian society is a young one, where
the largest segment is the teenagers and youngsters.
2.3. Mobile phone use differences in terms of age, gender and
income
Age, gender and income where all signicantly related
to mobile phone use [22]. Such personal characteristics are
important in understanding the use and ownership
behavior of humans as predictors or as moderators. The
following sections review the literature related to three
major demographic factors: age, gender and income.
Use related to age: Mobile phone use is not limited to a
specic age, as it was in the past. Today users age include
kids, teenagers, and adults. Teenagers (1217 years old)
were surveyed over several years about their mobile phone
use. In 2004 the survey showed that 45% of teens had a cell
phone. The proportion increased to 63% in 2006 and to 71%
in early 2008, while it was 77% for adults in the same year
[23]. The age of the rst adoption of mobile phones could
determine the current use intensity. Early adopters who are
considered as pre-teens pay high monthly phone bills and
the average number of monthly outgoing and incoming call
and text messages were higher than 17 years old late
adopters [24].
There are differences in mobile use patterns related to
age differences for the following features: SMS, camera and
music [25]. Some research papers showed that the older
the person, the more probability that he/she will use his/
her mobile phone frequently. Young adults (2123) make
and receive more voice calls and SMSs than others [26].
Older teens (17-years old) use their mobile phones on daily
basis, while younger teens (1217 years old) use their
mobile phones to make voice calls and send SMSs few
times a week [23]. Finally, for elderly people, the use fre-
quency decreases. Elderly dont use all services offered by
mobile phones extensively [27]. Mobile phone use patterns
for elderly can be categorized into one of the following two
areas: communication with relatives and references,
105
critical services like emergency and health information
services, and municipal services [2831].
Use related to gender: Signicant differences related to
gender were observed in the use of mobile phones for
common purposes such as: contacting family, scheduling
purposes, emergency and safety needs, and collaborate
with colleagues on education or job issues. For most fea-
tures of mobile phones and for all use purposes, females are
better users than males [6,22]. They physically decorate
their phones [32]; listen more hours to the radio [33]; use
extensively mobile phone features and services such as
SMS, alarm, camera and music; in addition, they record
sounds and take more photos [6,22,28,33].
Some researchers noticed that males make and receive
voice calls and send text messages more than females
[24,26]. On the other hand, others showed that females
appear to make more phone calls than males and they tend
to send/receive more messages to/from friends [23,3234].
However, both groups search for reasons to reduce the use
of their mobiles. However males mention more reasons
than females since they believe that mobile phones waste
time and cause addiction [33].
Use related to income: Economic conditions affect mobile
use patterns in developing countries. Such factors may play
a crucial role in the new use patterns in developing coun-
tries in the few coming years [35]. Nowadays, mobile users
are connected to the best available mobile networks that t
their service needs. Therefore, they might switch between
different networks to get the best t to their service re-
quirements [36].
There is a positive relationship between income, mobile
adoption and use. High income increases the probability of
mobile phone adoption, mobile use and expenditure [37].
In addition, high income increases the probability of mobile
ownership between teenagers from rich families [23]. A
study conducted to investigate students thoughts about
the importance and costs of mobile devices. It surveyed
students (both males and females) in relation to the
following features of their mobile phones: the mobile
design, its battery life, and storage memory; the MP3 player
feature; phone camera (video & photos); Bluetooth feature;
and other extra features like clock, calendar, organizer and
reminder. The study showed that students spend more
money to have such features supported in their mobile
devices. On the other hand, they are reluctant to have many
important features on their phones such as: touch screen,
voice commands, chat, teleconferencing, encryption and
cryptography, common use of les, and printing [38].
Understanding the use and purchase patterns related to
demographic factors is important for both the telecom-
munication industry and the academic domain. In partic-
ular it is critical to ascertain whether there is alignment
between the reasons for purchase and actual use. A
methodology providing insight into this alignment would
enable future research to understand more about this type
of technology its social impacts as well as how society
contributes to the development of this technology in a
particular national context. The telecommunication sector
will benet from such information in order to apply suit-
able segmentation and personalization techniques that will
attract buyers and consumers to the offered products and
106 E.A. Abu-Shanab, A.N. Abu-Baker / Technology in Society 38 (2014) 103110

services. Finally, it is important for researchers to under- Table 1

stand how different segments behave with respect to mo- Demographic data of the sample (total 233).

bile technology aspects so that we can develop a deeper Gender

understand of this technology and how it is impacted and Male 136 58%
impacts society. Female 97 42%
Total 233 100%
Age
3. Research method 1018 years 30 13%
1930 years 128 55%
This empirical study tried to answer the following 3150 years 68 29%
>50 years 7 3%
research questions related to mobile phone use and
Total 233 100%
acquisition in Jordan: Income
RQ1: What are the most popular uses of mobile phones by <250 JDs 61 26%
Jordanians? 251500 JDs 103 44%
RQ2: What are the main reasons for buying mobile phones 5011000 JDs 48 21%
>1000 JDs 8 3%
by Jordanians? Missing 13 6%
Ultimately, we are interested in developing a method- Total 233 100%
ology which helps us understand if the reasons for buying Education level
and the use of the mobile phones are aligned. Less than Tawjihi (HS) 31 13%
Tawjihi (high school) 32 14%
Sample: previous research in Jordan utilized students as
Diploma (23 years) 41 18%
surrogates for Jordanians, where university students have Bachelor 101 43%
similar use aspects and reasons for buying mobile phones. Master 26 11%
This study tried to utilize a more diversied sample, where PhD 2 1%
15 master students helped in collecting the sample from Total 233 100%
Specialization
different sources and places to overcome the limitation of Education 39 17%
using students and encourage respondent on lling the Medical area 11 5%
open answer questions accurately. 236 collected surveys Information technology 36 15%
where visually inspected and resulted in (233) usable sur- Engineering 10 4%
Administration area 50 21%
veys, where (3) surveys with many missing values were
Student 43 18%
omitted. The demographic details of the sample are shown Other 22 9%
in Table 1. The sample included a balanced distribution be- Missing 22 9%
tween males and females; mostly young respondents (19 Total 233 100%
30 years old); the same can be said with regard to income
and bachelor degree holders (44% & 43% respectively); and
no ubiquitous distribution with respect to specialization. a reduced (short) list of reasons. This research tried to apply
Data collection method: A well designed survey was used a mix between grounded theory and content analysis.
where previous research was utilized to build the research Glaser and Strauss [39] proposed this method for uti-
items [21,34]. The survey included two major sections. The lizing qualitative data to create a theory. They named their
rst section collected demographic data related to re- book The discovery of Grounded Theory, where many re-
spondents like gender, age, income, education, and searchers used their method to advance knowledge in so-
specialization of study. Also, respondents were asked about cial sciences. The method is based on categorizing the
the price they paid for the phone and the type of job they content collected by some means of communication with
occupy. The contribution of this research was an open subjects in real-life context [40]. The method is based on
question related to the major reasons for buying mobile inductive research approach, where the claims introduced
phones. Such open question aimed to give freedom to re- (theory proposed) are grounded in data [41], and categories
spondents to write what ever they wanted as a driver for are explored with no foundation embedded in the research
buying mobile phones. The second section included a 9 tool [42], or a concealed theory [43]. Some researchers
point Likert scale to measure the degree of use for 11 fea- utilized multiple former theories to reach a new formula-
tures or applications of mobile phones. The 9 point vari- tion [10]. The following ve steps were followed: 1) data
ability gave space for respondents to vary their use degree, collected through an empirical method, 2) all responses
where 1 indicated a very minor use of the feature and 9 were categorized into reasons with approved similarities
indicated a very extensive use of the feature. (based on researchers judgment), 3) new list of categories
Data analyses: Data collected was keyed and analyzed to were generated where categories are similar in area, 4)
answer the two research questions, where two major types general categories were generated and listed, and nally, 5)
of analyses were conducted. The rst research question was the nal step is a backward check that makes sure that all
answered through ranking the means of the 11 uses pro- responses are listed into the general list of categories and
posed by previous research. On the other hand, for the subcategories.
purpose of identifying the major reasons for buying a
certain mobile phone a clustering method was used. The 4. Discussion of results
clustering method imitated the grounded theory used in
qualitative research, where the authors tried to sum all As mentioned in the previous section, reported types of
types of reasons and repeated the process to come up with use were ranked based on the mean of responses reported
 E.A. Abu-Shanab, A.N. Abu-Baker / Technology in Society 38 (2014) 103110 107

by the 233 responses; Table 2 shows the mean and the
frequency of each type of use indicated by respondents. The
highest used feature was communication, followed by
using the phone as an alarm or watch, and nally, for
sending messages. On the other hand, the lowest used
features were using mobile phones as a dictionary, for
playing video games, and for Internet access.
It is natural to see the highest use related to commu-
nication (making calls) and sending messages, but tasks
like using it as a camera doesnt t with their reported
reasons of purchase. Also, results indicated that smart
phones are not that common among the study sample.
Such results were common in previous research [13,4446]
and in alignment with the economic conditions of Jordan
and the importance of phone prices. Accordingly, some
previous studies identied SMS use to be more dominating
among other services [13,25,46]. While in this study the
most prevalent service was: to make phone calls
(communication), this nding also is supported by similar
studies in the literature [12,33,47].
On the other hand, when asked about how much they
paid for their mobile phones, the reported mean of the paid
prices by all respondents was (133.28 JDs), which included
used and new mobiles. When looking into Table 1, data
indicates that 70% of respondents earned an income less
than JD500 (700 USD), which explains why such issue is
important and why the mean of mobile prices is low.
Finally, data indicated that the major brand names sold in
the Jordanian market are the following with the frequency
of responses related to each: Nokia (178), Samsung (23),
Sony Erickson (8), LG (4), I-Phone type (3), other types
(10), not reported (7). The brand familiarity is a major
reason for mobile phone purchase [22,47,48,50]. Nokias
handsets were found to be the most popular handset brand,
which is aligned with the ndings of previous research
[12,34]. Such ndings, in their own limited manner, are
distinctly a result of Nokias domination in the handset
market over other brands like Samsung, Sony Erickson, I-
Phone type LG, Motorola, Panasonic, Siemens and Reliance.
The second research question is related to the major
reasons for buying a certain mobile phone. Researchers
used an open question, where respondents had the
freedom to write as many reasons as they can. Responses
on this question ranged from no reasons (blank space) to
six reasons for buying phones. The researchers collected all
types of reasons generated from the 233 surveys, which
totaled 546 answers. Similar reasons were coded into the
same code level tentatively to guard for the need for new
reasons. The process of identifying the major reasons for
buying a certain mobile phone used a clustering technique.
Same reasons were clustered together either by wording or
obvious meaning and resulted in 51 major reasons. The
clustering process used a coding system to conduct the
backward and forward iterations on data. This step clus-
tered the 546 reasons into 51 major reasons. The number of
different reasons included in each major reason ranged
from 1 to 9 reasons. The major reasons collected (51 major
reasons) were further clustered into 11 major categories
(This process is shown in Table 3).
The highest ve reasons reported by subjects with their
frequencies were: because of its camera (40), easy to use
(36), phone is practical (34), to use for communication (27),
and because the phone is cheap (25). On the other hand,
looking into the categories, the highest was related to
specic feature available in the phone (124); followed by
two categories with similar frequency 89, style related
reasons and performance related reasons.
Earlier studies proclaimed that mobile phone prior-
purchase factors were: innovative services, multimedia,
design, brand and basic properties, outside inuence, price,
and reliability [48]. Our results indicate an agreement with
Karjaluoto et al. [47] ndings with respect to features and
price related reasons. On the other hand, in this study
performance came before price reasons. Many researchers
indicated that the physical attributes inuence the choice
of mobile phones, which coincides with the ndings of this
research [22,25,48]. While other research [4951,53] pro-
posed that new technology features are driving customers
to buy new mobile phones, this study ranked phone fea-
tures rst (like camera, touch screen and style related
features), which supports the results of this study.
It seems surprising that the major reason for buying
phones was the camera, but the camera was not the most
popular feature used (as seen in Table 2). Also, it might be
expected to see less use of smart phones as the focus for
buying was ease of use, being practical, its use for
communication, and its low-price.
Data also indicated that durability reasons were not an
issue even though (67) respondents indicated that they
have a eld job. Phone brand was a major reason for buying

Table 2
Frequencies and means of responses related to mobile phone use patterns.

# Use description Frequencies of responses Mean

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 Used for communication 6 0 4 7 9 15 13 11 168 8.034
2 Used as an alarm or a watch 12 10 8 3 9 11 16 30 134 7.455
3 For sending messages 36 12 27 19 23 19 18 22 54 5.365
4 To hear music, songs and Quran 65 11 15 9 23 21 18 17 53 4.948
5 For Bluetooth feature 63 13 22 16 16 11 21 14 52 4.789
6 Used for scheduling or diary 69 16 20 13 15 15 13 21 51 4.704
7 Used as a calculator 46 25 22 17 33 17 19 21 33 4.700
8 Used as a camera 66 20 14 26 28 28 14 9 23 4.110
9 Used for the internet access 144 9 11 10 12 12 8 7 16 2.721
10 Used for video games (gaming) 134 17 15 17 14 8 8 6 12 2.645
11 Used as a dictionary 150 12 10 11 8 13 4 6 14 2.491
108 E.A. Abu-Shanab, A.N. Abu-Baker / Technology in Society 38 (2014) 103110

Table 3
Clustering process results.

# Code Rank Reason type (frequency) Category Rank

1 10 10 Suitable price (20) Price related reasons (58) 4
2 11 5 Cheap, economic, poverty (25)
3 12 30 Offer (7)
4 13 32 Installment plan (6)
5 20 3 Practical, simple (34) Performance related 2
6 21 17 Suitable, good, its OK, workable, usable (12) reasons (89)
7 22 35 Its specication (5)
8 23 12 Its applications, its GUI, its OS, language (17)
9 24 30 Minor faults, easy maintenance (7)
10 25 35 Good for my job, work (5)
11 26 48 Distinctive (2)
12 27 30 Fast, efciency (7)
13 30 10 Stylish, fashionable, feminine (20) Style related reasons (89) 2
14 31 22 Size, small size, weight (10)
15 32 10 Beautiful, attractive, eye catching (20)
16 33 43 Admiration (3)
17 34 43 For bragging (3)
18 35 48 Its color (2)
19 36 11 Elegant, smooth, nice (19)
20 37 17 Its appearance (general) (12)
21 40 19 Touch screen, screen resolution, screen size (11) Required specic features 1
22 41 1 Camera, camcorder (video), camera resolution (40) related reasons (124)
23 42 13 Memory size, large memory, expandable memory (14)
24 43 22 Bluetooth, GPS (10)
25 44 48 Slide phone (2)
26 45 48 Battery life, efcient charging (2)
27 46 17 Other features (double camera, light, reminder,
loud sound) (12)
28 47 14 Internet access, Wi-Fi, wireless (13)
29 48 26 Radio, Music, entertainment, hearing Quran (9)
30 49 19 Games, multimedia, messaging (11)
31 70 2 Easy to use (36) Easy use related 5
32 71 37 Comfortable (4) reasons (44)
33 72 43 Easy to use application (3)
34 73 51 Easy to program (1)
35 90 30 Brand name, reliability based on brand, one of Brand & quality related 6
the best types (7) reasons (32)
36 91 7 Quality of machine (21)
37 92 51 Widely used (1)
38 93 43 Good service (by dealer) (3)
39 110 6 New model, modern, developed, new New models related 9
technology (22) reasons (22)
40 130 4 For communication, personal or work (27) Communication related 7
reasons (27)
41 50 26 Strong, tough (9) Durability related 11
42 51 35 Shock resistant (5) reasons (15)
43 52 51 Reliable (1)
44 100 22 Options, many options (10) Multiple options related 9
45 101 26 Great options (9) reasons (22)
46 102 43 Required technology is available (3)
47 80 43 No Reason (3) Other reasons (24) 8
48 60 32 Gift (6)
49 120 48 Recommended by somebody (shop owner, family) (2)
50 140 37 Other reasons (used it, necessity, special purposes) (4)
51 150 26 Vague reasons (not clear or understandable) (9)

Numbers between parentheses are the frequencies of the reason reported by subjects.

phones, which indicates the dominance of Nokia phones in
the Jordanian market. Finally, Jordanians have an equal
level of importance for performance features compared to
style features.
5. Conclusions
This work had two main objectives: the rst aimed to
investigate the most popular uses of mobile phones by
Jordanians (RQ1). The second was to identify the main
reasons for buying mobile phones by Jordanians (RQ2).
Ultimately, developing a methodology for understanding
the alignment of these two was of interest.
The survey results showed high frequency in Jordanians
use of mobile features and services like: using it for
communication; using the alarm or checking time; sending
messages; enjoying music, listening to songs or reciting
Holy Quran; using the Bluetooth feature; scheduling or
 E.A. Abu-Shanab, A.N. Abu-Baker / Technology in Society 38 (2014) 103110
diary functions; using its calculator; using the camera;
accessing the Internet; and playing games.
Prevailing research papers have focused on the common
mobile phone uses and the differences in mobile phone use
based on: age, gender, income, etc. On the other hand, other
research papers which discussed the major reasons for
buying specic mobile phone are rare. This gap in the
literature urges us to explore the second research question
and to see if we can develop a methodology to understand
whether there is alignment between the reasons for pur-
chase and use. The researchers used a mix between the
grounded theory and clustering concepts to cluster the
reasons for buying mobile phones in Jordan. The highest
ve reasons in descending order were: the existence of
camera, the easiness of using them, because they are
practical, its use for communication, and its low price. The
second step clustered the 51 reasons into 11 major ones;
the highest were related to specic features available in the
phone, followed by two categories with same frequencies:
reasons related to style and reasons related to phone
performance.
This research illustrates an application of the grounded
theory. Using this method depicts some unique and pre-
viously unobserved knowledge about customer mobile
phone choices. The use of a grounded theory approach
provides richer and deeper insights into customer choices
than other methodologies. The ndings of this work are
important to mobile manufacturers when studying the
Jordanian market. Although this study results indicated
that Nokia is dominating the Jordanian market, it is also
important to understand the common uses of mobile
phone features and decision making factors for prior pur-
chase. It is important to know the features that attract
Jordanians to try to promote specic models in the market
that t with their needs.
The surveyed subjects emphasized the importance of
the following features in their mobile phones: good mobile
style; phone camera (video & photos); memory size; GPS;
Internet access; Bluetooth feature; battery life; and other
extra features like clock, calendar, organizer and reminder.
These features should match the purchasing power of in-
dividuals in Jordan, because mobile phone cost was found
to be a major factor affecting the choice of mobile phones,
especially by younger people [51,52]. The survey shows that
Jordanians can pay prices between 30 and 470 JDs for
buying a mobile. The average paid price for all reported
respondents was (133.28 JDs), which indicates that Jorda-
nians are buying low-priced phones.
From a theoretical viewpoint, this study contributed to
the factors that affect mobile phones buying decisions by
examining customer stimulants and the attributes affecting
the actual acquisition choices. This work improved our
knowledge of such phenomenon as it utilized a diverse
sample, rather than students. Also, using open questions in
this study gave more freedom to respondents to bring their
reasons to the table and use their own language.
6. Implications, limitations and future work
ICT convergence is a predicted paradigm that made
computing and communication a ubiquitous phenomenon.
109
Mobile phones are the major tool for convergence, where
computing and communication are converging to serve
humanity. Societies are inuenced by this phenomenon on
many levels. Yet there are still gaps in methodological ap-
proaches related to purchase and actual use.
This study implies that using diverse methods and
samples would enhance the ndings and contributions of
research. The use of grounded theory and clustering tech-
niques contributed to improve the rigor of the ndings and
opened new venues for research. Practically, rms working
in the mobile phone industry (local retailers and distrib-
uters) should pay attention to certain features related to
each country and carefully align the prices of different sorts
of phones to certain segments of the society.
This work is still at an early stage, where some limita-
tions can be avoided in the future. A more diversied
sample can be closer to reality, and a larger sample can
draw a more accurate picture of the Jordanian society,
which may improve the generalizability of the results.
Large samples will open doors for future research on the
macro level to utilize more technical and in-depth analysis
using techniques like data mining and information retrieval
to conclude different categorizations or certain associa-
tions. However, the focus of this research study was to test a
methodology for gaining a deeper understanding of the
connection between use and purchase building on estab-
lished theory.
References
[1] Beardon H. Mobiles for development: how mobile technologies can
enhance plan and partners work in Africa. Plan International; 2009.
[2] Elaph Newspaper. Title in Arabic The number of mobile phone
users in the world increased to 5 billion. Retrieved January 13,
2011 from Elaf website: http://www.elaph.com/Web/technology/
2010/2/534728.html; 2010.
[3] ITU. World telecommunication/ICT development report 2010,
monitoring the WSIS targets, a mid-term review. Report issued by
International Telecommunication Union. Available from: www.itu.
int/dms_pub/itu-d/opb/ind/D-IND-WTDR-2010-PDF-E.pdf; 2010.
[4] Abu ST, Tsuji M. The determinants of the global mobile telephone
deployment: an empirical analysis. Inform Econ 2010;14(3):2133.
[5] Carroll J, Howard S, Peck J, Murphy J. A eld study of perceptions
and use of mobile telephones by 16 to 22 year olds. J Inform Technol
Theor Appl (JITTA) 2002;4(2):4962.
[6] Bar F, Pisani F, Weber M. Mobile technology appropriation in a
distant mirror: baroque inltration, creolization and cannibalism.
Accessed from the Internet in April 2007, http://arnic.info/Papers/
Bar_Pisani_Weber_appropriation-April07.pdf; 2007.
[7] Wajcman J, Bittman M, Johnstone L, Brown J, Jones P. The impact of
the mobile phone on work/life balance: preliminary report. Can-
berra: Australian National University and the Australian Mobile
Telecommunications Association; 2007.
[8] Mahmoodabad SSM, Barkhordari A, Nadrian H, Moshiri O,
Yavari MT. Survey of ownership and use of mobile phones among
medical science students in yazd. Pak J Biomed Sci 2009;12(21):
14303.
[9] Davie R, Panting C, Charlton T. Mobile phone ownership and usage
among pre-adolescents. Telematics Inform 2004;21:35973.
[10] Eaves Y. A synthesis technique for grounded theory data analysis. J
Adv Nurs 2001;35(5):65463.
[11] Yan A, Md-Nor K, Abu-Shanab E, Sutanonpaiboon J. Factors that
affect mobile telephone users to use mobile payment solution. Int J
Econ Manage 2009;3(1):3749.
[12] Belwal R, Belwal S. Mobile phone usage behavior of university
students in Oman. In: 2009 International Conference on New Trends
in Information and Service Science; 2009. pp. 95462.
[13] Zulkey S, Baharudin R. Mobile phone use amongst students in a
University in Malaysia: its correlates and relationship to psycho-
logical health. Eur J Sci Res 2009;37(2):20618.
110 E.A. Abu-Shanab, A.N. Abu-Baker / Technology in Society 38 (2014) 103110
[14] Mezei G, Benyi M, Muller A. Mobile phone ownership and use among
school children in three Hungarian cities. Bioelectromagnetics 2007;
28():30915.
[15] UN E-Government Survey (2010). United Nations E-Government
Survey 2010, leveraging E-government at a time of nancial and
economic crisis. Report issued by Department of Economic and
Social Affairs, United Nations; 2011.
[16] Ammonnews.net. Title in Arabic Mobile Phones Subscriptions in
Jordan exceeds its population of more than 3%. Retrieved January
13, 2011 from Ammon News website, http://www.ammonnews.
net/article.aspx?articleNo72039; 2010.
[17] Arab Advisors Group. Jordans cellular phone market the most
competitive in the Arab world. Arab Advisors Group Report,
retrieved from: http://www.arabadvisors.com; June, 2010.
[18] Department of Statistics. Information technology use indoors sur-
vey. Analytical report. Jordan: Department of Statistics Report;
2009.
[19] Al-Mbaydeen E. 673 million dinars, total company revenues last
year, the center of cellular competition in the market. From Al-Gad
Newspaper, 2010. Retrieved December 28, 2010 from: www.alghad.
com; June, 2010.
[20] Al-Mbaydeen E. Jordanians spent 622 million dinars on the cell
phone in 9 months. From Al-Gad Newspaper. Retrieved January 13,
2011 from: www.alghad.com; Jan, 2011.
[21] Al-Qudah K. Mobile phone ownership and usage among students at
Jordanian Universities. J Human Soc Sci 2008;5(2):69100.
[22] Abdul Karim NS, Oyefolahan IO. Mobile phone appropriation:
exploring differences in terms of age, gender and occupation. In:
The 6th International Conference on Information Technology and
Applications (ICITA 2009); 2009. pp. 27681.
[23] Lenhart A. Teens and mobile phones over the past ve years: Pew
Internet looks back. Report by Pew Internet, August 19, 2009.
Available from: http:www.pewinternet.org; 2009.
[24] Geser H. Pre-teen cell phone adoption: consequences for later
patterns of phone use and involvement http://socio.ch/mobile/t_
geser2.pdf; 2006.
[25] Oyefolahan IO. An investigation of wireless phone technologies
usage patterns and impacts: a case study of IIUM staff. Unpublished
master dissertation. International Islamic University Malaysia;
2008.
[26] Iqbal Z. Gender differences in mobile phone use: what communi-
cation motives does it gratify? Eur J Sci Res 2010;46(10):51022.
[27] Roupa Z, Nikas M, Gerasimou E, Zafeiri V, Giasyrani L, Kazitori E,
et al. The use of technology by the elderly. Health Sci J 2010;4(2):
11826.
[28] Dunn HS, Dunn L. Genderstanding mobile telephony women, men
and their use of the cellular phones in the Caribbean. Retrieved
December 20, 2010, from: http://www.dirsi.net/english/les/
background%20papers/070216dunn.pdf; 2006.
[29] Mallenius S, Rossi M, Tuunainen VK. Factors affecting the adoption
and use of mobile devices and services by elderly people-results
from a pilot study. Available from:. In: Proceeding of 6th Annual
Global Mobility Roundtable, Los Angeles. http://www.marshall.usc.
edu/ctm/Research; 2007.
[30] Md. Nasir MHN, Hassan H, Jomhari N. The use of mobile phones by
elderly: a study in Malaysia perspectives. J Soc Sci 2008;4(2):1237.
[31] Hassan H, Md Nasir MHN. The use of mobile phones by older adults:
a Malaysian study. Sigaccess Newslet Sep, 2008;92:116.
[32] Baron SN, Ling L. Emerging patterns of American mobile phone use:
electronically-mediated communication in transition. In: Mobile
media 2007: Proceedings of an International Conference on Social
and Cultural Aspects of Mobile Phones, Convergent Media and
Wireless Technologies. Sydney: University of Sydney; 2007.
pp. 21830.
[33] Economides AA, Grousopoulou A. .Use of mobile phones by male
and female Greek students. Int J Mob Commun (IJMC) 2008;6(6):
72949.
[34] MACRO. Study of mobile phone usage among the teenagers and
youth. In: Mumbai. A report issued by MACRO (Market
Analysis and Consumer Research Organization) in April/May-2004.
Accessed from the Internet from: http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/ni/
futuremobile/socialaspects/IndiaMacroMobileYouthStud.y04.pdf;
2004.
[35] Donner J. Research approaches to mobile use in the developing
world: a review of the literature. Inform Soc 2008;24(3).
[36] Selvan C, Shanmugalakshmi R. Performance analysis of modern
handoff techniques provide QoS in mobile networks. IJCSNS Int J
Comput Sci Netw Security 2010;10(8):28793.
[37] Chabossou A, Stork C, Stork M, Zahonogo Z. Mobile telephony access
and usage in Africa. In: ICTD 2009 Proceedings of the Third Inter-
national Conference on Information and Communication Technol-
ogies and Development, Carnegie Mellon Qatar, Doha, Qatar; April
1719, 2009.
[38] Economides AA, Grousopoulou A. Students thoughts about the
importance and costs of their mobile devices features and services.
Telematics Inform 2009;26:5784.
[39] Glaser B, Strauss A. The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for
qualitative research. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company; 1967.
[40] Abrahamson M. Social research methods. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice Hall; 1983. p. 413 (pages reviewed 258270).
[41] Chen H, Boore J. Using a synthesised technique for grounded theory
in nursing research. J Clin Nurs 2009;18:225160.
[42] Johnson A, Egelkraut T, Grout C. Market intelligence utilization by
small food companies: an application of the grounded theory
method in exploratory research. J Food Distribut Res July 2010;
41(2):5872.
[43] Thornberg R. A classmate in distress: schoolchildren as bystanders
and their reasons for how they act. Soc Psychol Educ 2007;10:528.
[44] Bina M, Karaiskos D, Giaglis GM. Investigating factors affecting
actual usage patterns of mobile data services. Retrieved March
2011, http://www.marshall.usc.edu/assets/006/5561.pdf; 2006.
[45] Carroll J, Howard S, Vetere F, Peck J, Murphy J. Just what do the
youth of today want? Technology appropriation by young people.
In: System Sciences, 2002. HICSS. Proceedings of the 35th Annual
Hawaii International Conference on; 2002. pp. 177785.
[46] Walsh S, White K, Young R. Young and connected: psychological
inuences of mobile phone use amongst Australian youth. In:
Goggin Gerard, Hjorth Larissa, editors. Mobile Media 2007. Uni-
versity of Sydney; July 24, 2007.
[47] Karjaluoto H, Karvonen J, Kesti M, Koivumki T, Manninen M,
Pakola J, et al. Factors affecting consumer choice of mobile phones:
two studies from Finland. J Euromarket 2005;14(3):5981.
[48] Carroll J, Howard S, Peck J, Murphy J. Appropriation of mobile phone
by 16 to 22 year old: a eld study. In: System Sciences, 2002. HICSS.
Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii International Conference;
2002.
[49] In-Stat/MDR. The worldwide PDA market: the next generation of
mobile computing. Research Report; September, 2002.
[50] Liu CM. The effects of promotional activities on brand decision in
the cellular telephone industry. J Prod Brand Manage 2002;11(1):
4251.
[51] Karjaluoto H, Karvonen J, Pakola J, Pietil M, Salo J, Svento R.
Exploring consumer motives in mobile phone industry: an investi-
gation of Finnish mobile phone users. Proc 1st Int Conf Bus Econ
Manag Mark (Athens, Greece) 2003;3:33542.
[52] Karjaluoto H, Pakola J, Pietil M, Svento R. An exploratory study on
antecedents and consequences of mobile phone usage in Finland.
Proc AMA Summer Mark Educators Conf (Chicago, USA) 2003;14:
1708.
[53] OKeefe M. 2004 worldwide camera phone and photo messaging
forecast. InfoTrends Research Group, Inc.; 2004. Research Report.
Accessed from the Internet from: http://www.capv.com/public/
home.html.