THE RISE OF AN APPARATGEIST: FACTORS AFFECTING BANGKOK-BASED CONSUMERS ’ PURCHASE INTENTION FOR SMART PHONES

Abstract: Mobile phones are devices that some of us cannot do without. Indeed, for some of us, a growing legion, it is impossible to imagine a day in our lives without a mobile phone beside us. So, in our era of Internet and Social Networking, the introduction of Smartphones into the mobile industry was bound to happen. Smartphones have brought about changes around us in our daily lives like no other device in our contemporary era. The purpose of this research is to better understand consumers ’ taste for Smartphones by studying different factors affecting consumer intention to purchase a Smartphone over other mobile phones and study the main factors leading to this change in purchase intention. The dependent variable for this research is Purchase Intention and the independent variables are Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Brand Image, Price, and Product Knowledge. These factors are based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the concept of marketing mix, and Kotler’s Buyer Decision Process. Five hypotheses were developed. Descriptive Research was used, applying the Survey Techniques and under Quota Sampling Methods. 400 questionnaires were collected from selected outlets in Bangkok Metropolitan. The results show that Brand Image is the main factor that is considered when a consumer intends to buy a Smartphone. Following closely is the Price factor