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The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the viablity of a handset‐based research platform in measuring mobile service and application usage through various descriptive empirical studies.

A handset‐based research platform was used in measuring mobile usage in an international panel consisting of more than 500 mobile subscribers. The panel took place in 2005‐2006.

The research paper finds various interesting data points which cannot be derived with any other method. In addition, the paper finds that there are significant differences in certain mobile service and application use cases between different demographic groups.

The main research limitations are the size of the sample and lack of clear business implications. The main idea of the paper was just to demonstrate the type of measurements and studies that can be done with the developed research platform.

3G technology drives packet data usage and 3rd party application usage in smartphones is very promising. Handset‐based research platform can and should be used in the future in various empirical studies on the mobile telecommunication market

A handset‐based research platform has never before been utilized in doing market research, and therefore the process and results discussed in this paper are pioneering ones.

This paper aims to investigate accessibility and usage of mobile smartphones by Arabic-speaking visually impaired people in Saudi Arabia.

In total, 104 participants with visual impairments were interviewed about their use of mobile phones with the following questions: What is the most commonly used mobile phone? What is the popular domain for which they use mobile phones? What are their favorite applications? What accessibility challenges do they usually face while using mobile phones? How often do they use the Internet via mobile phones and what are the reasons behind that?

This research is the first study with such magnitude to investigate smartphone usage by Arabic-speaking visually impaired people. The survey has revealed that Arabic-speaking visually impaired people utilize mobile phones in different ways and strategies. Getting assistance in performing daily tasks and navigating independently are two of the most common uses for mobile phones.

Based on the findings, the authors are going to propose some guidelines to developers to improve smartphone accessibility, application design and Internet usage to improve accessibility for visually impaired people.

Using a mobile phone is increasingly becoming recognized as very dangerous while driving. With a smartphone, users feel connected and have access to information. The inability to access smartphone has become a phobia, causing anxiety and fear. The present study’s aims are as follows: first, quantify the association between nomophobia and road safety among motorists; second, determine a cut-off value for nomophobia that would identify poor road safety so that interventions can be designed accordingly.

Participants were surveyed online for nomophobia symptoms and a recent history of traffic contraventions. Nomophobia was measured using the nomophobia questionnaire (NMP-Q).

A total of 1731 participants responded to the survey; the mean age was 33 ± 12, and 43% were male. Overall, 483 (28%) [26–30%] participants received a recent traffic contravention. Participants with severe nomophobia showed a statistically significant increased risk for poor road safety odds ratios and a corresponding 95% CI of 4.64 [3.35-6.38] and 4.54 [3.28-6.29] in crude and adjusted models, respectively. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC)-based analyses revealed that NMP-Q scores of = 90 would be effective for identifying at risk drivers with sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 61%, 75% and 72%, respectively.

Nomophobia symptoms are quite common among adults. Severe nomophobia is associated with poor road safety among motorists. Developing screening and intervention programs aimed at reducing nomophobia may improve road safety among motorists.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how social need, social influence and convenience affect dependence on smartphones and purchasing behavior among university students in Pakistan’s emerging economy.

Survey methods and non-probability purposive sampling were used to collect data from 337 respondents, and structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesis.

Overall the results provided evidence that social need, social influence and convenience significantly affect students’ dependence on their smartphones. A significant relationship also existed between students’ dependence on smartphones and their purchasing behavior.

The availability of 3G/4G mobile networks and the growth in smartphones’ computing power have meant that this form of mobile technology is in great demand. This study provides an exclusive viewpoint concerning students’ dependence on smartphones and the effect of this on their purchasing behavior, which is a subject that has not been covered previously in the Pakistani context.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a forensic analysis of Google Allo messenger on an Android-based mobile phone. The focus was on the analysis of the data stored by this application in the internal memory of the mobile device, with minimal use of third-party applications. The findings were compared with the already existing works on this topic. Android is the most popular operating system for mobile devices, and these devices often contain a massive amount of personal information about the user such as photos and contact details. Analysis of these applications is required in case of a forensic investigation and makes the process easier for forensic analysts.

Logical acquisition of the data stored by these applications was performed. A locked Android device was used for this purpose. Some scripts are presented to help in data acquisition using Android Debug Bridge (ADB). Manual forensic analysis of the device image was performed to see whether the activities carried out on these applications are stored in the internal memory of the device. A comparative analysis of an existing mobile forensic tool was also performed to show the effectiveness of the methodology adopted.

Forensic artifacts were recovered from Allo application. Multimedia content such as images were also retrieved from the internal memory.

As this study was conducted for forensic analysis, it assumed that the mobile device used already has USB debugging enabled on it, although this might not be the applicable in some of the cases. This work provides an optimal approach to acquiring artifacts with minimal use of third-party applications.

Most of the mobile devices contain messaging application such as Allo installed. A large amount of personal information can be obtained from the forensic analysis of these applications, which can be useful in any criminal investigation.

This is the first study which focuses on the Google Allo application. The proposed methodology was able to extract almost as much as the data obtained using earlier approaches, but with minimal third-party application usage.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use patterns and ownership of smartphone apps among students at the Department of Library and Information Science (DLIS) at the South Valley University (SVU), Egypt. This study may help faculty members and students, as well as DLISs in general and SVU’s DLIS, in particular, to understand the nature and purpose of such use.

This study used quantitative research methodology in the form of a survey, which was undertaken from February to March 2015. The survey instrument was a self-administrated questionnaire, with a response rate 82.7 per cent (441/533).

The findings of this study showed that smartphone users (82.7 per cent) at SVU’s DLIS tended to be junior females. Smartphone non-users (17.3 per cent) tended to be also young females but primarily sophomores. The highest percentage of smartphone users had been using smartphones for four to five years, and the largest number of students was described to be advanced users who heard first about these mobile devices through friends and the Web. Most users had 21 to 25 apps. Social apps were the most popular and included Facebook, e-mail and Twitter. For professional purposes, students used smartphones more for communication purposes than learning purposes. Apps related to educational purposes included Google Mobile, Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, YouTube and Wikipedia Mobile. Students perceived most apps to be easy to use and useful to them. There were a number of uses for socializing including messaging, following the news and playing games. Students had mainly positive attitudes towards apps with a few negative concerns. Almost all students confirmed that they trust most apps. Barriers related to the use of apps included training and lack of awareness. Further research may be needed to specify the relationship between the students’ use of these apps and their academic performance. The main tasks done on smartphone devices were mainly for socializing. Students indicated that popular tasks and activities, such as sending and receiving messages, following the news, making communications, making chat, making friends, finding specific information, finding general information, making discussion groups, playing games, completing class assignments, checking materials related to courses, doing business, seeking jobs, watching movies, listening to music and accessing library services are important tasks accomplished by them through the use of these devices. The current study indicated very positive attitudes towards the use of these apps. Student at least agree with the statement that smartphone apps allow for easy dissemination of information, provide too much information, increase the speed of finding information, help communication, convenient, secure, build confident and reduce paper use. However, a large number of students also at least agree with the statement that these apps are time consuming, intimidating, addictive, violate privacy, require high language and technical skills, harmful and frustrating. Almost all students confirmed that they are at least trustful in some apps, such as WhatsApp, e-mail, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Viber. A large number of smartphone users surveyed in this study have been described to make excessive usage of social apps, such as communication apps, messaging/texting apps and social networking sites, which were at the forefront of use. Additionally, a large number of them adopted these devices, especially for communication purposes. The most used apps were Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube and Viber. For professional purposes, students used smartphones more for communication purposes than learning purposes. However, some of the students were using some of apps related to educational purposes, such as Google mobile, Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, YouTube and Wikipedia mobile but not on a regular basis. Students perceived the use of e-mail app, Google mobile, Facebook app WhatsApp, Kik, Twitter, YouTube, Google maps, Viber, Line, Skype, Tango, Instagram, Flickr and Wikipedia mobile as at least fairly easy to them. Additionally, they perceived the use of e-mail app Google mobile, WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Viber, Instagram, Wikipedia mobile, Google maps, Kik, Skype, Line, Tango and Flickr as at least fairly useful to them, especially for the purpose socialization more than learning.

This study focuses only on undergraduate library and information science students belonging to SVU’s DLIS, Egypt. Any findings and conclusions resulting from this study are limited in scope to only SVU’s DLIS’s undergraduate students. The study does not contain a significantly large sample of a population from across Egypt to draw meaningful widespread conclusions indicative of such a larger population.

This study provides valuable insight into the use pattern of smartphones among a very important client group. It may serve as useful input to researchers who are interested in the study of mobile internet technologies (MITs), particularly in the education society.

Being the first study of its kind about university students in Egypt, it is considered a pioneering and a unique study among studies conducted in the field of ICTs and MITs, especially with this category of information users.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the key role of WhatsApp as WhatsApp-customer relationship management (w-CRM) for strengthening the relationship in the education sector. The paper is exploratory in nature.

A self-administered questionnaire was developed with 20 items for four latent constructs. The data were collected from the undergraduate and postgraduate students of Sri Sri University, Cuttack (Odisha), India, based on convenience sampling. The hypotheses were tested through regression and correlation analyzes.

The findings of the study unveiled that the relationships between students and teaching staff, students and non-teaching staff, and teaching and non-teaching staff can be strengthened by the adoption of w-CRM.

WhatsApp can be an inevitable tool to emerge with traditional CRM system to facilitating the advance implementation of w-CRM in the service industry.

Although the present study is limited to one of the service sectors, i.e. education, it unfolds the scope of implementation of w-CRM in different services. Especially, small and medium enterprises can implement this tool hand to hand to maintain strong relationships with customers.

The use of mobile technologies and learning devices has been increasing in every field of life, and library and information sciences are no exception. This study aims to explore the perceptions of library and information science (LIS) students regarding mobile learning (m-learning) along with their primary purposes, social media applications, advantages, disadvantages, barriers, impact and overall satisfaction with using these devices.

A survey method was used, and data was collected from the students of 12 library schools in Pakistan for a total sample of 250 students.

Their main purposes of usage, their needs, advantages, disadvantages, barriers, impacts and the level of overall satisfaction were also identified. The inferential statistics (t-test and ANOVA) also identified the difference of opinion on the basis of gender, programs, types and number of m-learning devices. Overall, the findings highlight the need for academic libraries to give mobile access (launching mobile applications) to better use library services. To ensure this, libraries must keep an eye on new advances in mobile technology, researchers’ needs and related electronic library services and observe how these services are being used.

Theoretical and practical implications have been highlighted to understand the perceptions of LIS students about m-learning devices.

The mobile library service providers and management need to improve their services by offering services that fit the diverse needs of their users and should know how to attract modern library users.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of user adoption of smartphone fitness apps in context of an emerging economy.

The present study uses the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) as the base model along with two additional constructs, i.e. self-efficacy and personal innovativeness. The data collection was done through an online survey, wherein a total of 324 valid responses were obtained for the statistical analysis. All the hypothesized relationships were tested through partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using an open source programming language and software environment, i.e. R Software along with plspm-package.

Significant predictors of smartphone fitness app adoption intention include effort expectancy, social influence, perceived value, habit and personal innovativeness. Further, this study confirms significant relationship between personal innovativeness and habit, self-efficacy and effort expectancy and effort expectancy and performance expectation. This study reveals that personal innovativeness is the strongest predictor of behavioural intention. Contrary to the expectations, factors like performance expectancy, facilitating conditions and hedonic motivation did not influence behavioural intention.

This study gives significant clues to app developers that can drastically influence the adoption of fitness apps. The findings suggest that marketers should focus on users with high personal innovativeness that can further act as role models and significantly influence their social circle. Interestingly, the findings suggest that fitness apps, as compared to other apps, should not emphasize much on the hedonic value of their offerings.

This study is one of the few studies to examine the adoption of smartphone fitness apps in an emerging economy context by using extended version of UTAUT2 model. Further, this study shows how new endogenous and exogenous variables (i.e. self-efficacy and personal innovativeness) contribute to better explanatory power of the UTAUT2 framework.

In a converged and smart media environment, it no longer makes sense to talk only of a digital divide based on access to a platform – instead, a new “smartphone divide” is created based on a user’s ability to access and use an array of different services. Although there is an extensive literature on the digital divide in broadband access and use, zero research efforts have addressed the digital divide in mobile phone usage. Therefore, this research study aims to fill the gap in the literature by looking into new dimensions of the smartphone divide.

Data were collected from a college student sample through an online survey and some hypotheses were framed and tested for intergroup (smartphone users vs non-users) and intragroup (active smartphone users vs inactive users) differences based on access, experience and persistence of usage.

Findings are: first, smartphone users were more active online as expected. Although no significant difference was detected in the amount of time spent on social networking sites (SNSs) between smartphone users and non-users, smartphone users had more friends online and more “online-only” friends than non-users. Second, smartphone users seem to participate more actively in social and political issues than non-users do. Third, active users were adopting digital technologies faster than less active users, and active users were inclined to spend longer time on SNSs than less active users. Also, active users used more free and paid applications on their smartphones compared to less active users.

This research study aims to fill the gap in the literature by looking into new dimensions of the smartphone divide and exploring the differential usage of smartphone users in terms of usage level, awareness and usability levels, usage scope and consequential uses controlling for demographics and socioeconomic status. The ensuing pilot study validates some of speculations suggested in the previous literature.