Kim+K.+Focus+Group+Report

Kim K. To: Proximity Mobile Networking Team From: Kihyun Kim Subject: Focus Group Report Date: March 29, 2010

Here is my focus group I ran with five college age people on their needs and insight into mobile devices. I was able to cover all five of the questions developed by our team. I interviewed three Verizon users and two AT&T users. Most participants reported they were mostly satisfied with their mobile devices and mobile plan.


 * Focus Group Rationale **

U.S. users of smart phones typically buy a subsidized handset from a particular cell phone provider. Consequently they must consider trade-offs between handset features and the price and quality of the cell network. The purpose of our focus groups is to determine what factors influence these decisions, and whether they are driven primarily by the choice of handset or the provider network. We also want to determine the extent to which Gen-Y uses apps. This information will let us better advice Proximity clients about which handsets and networks are most attractive to Gen-Y users.


 * Setting and Participants **

The 45 minute session was held at church on Sunday, March 21, 2010. The participants were:


 * Ryou, 26, a Towson Univ. junior finance major, AT&T (iPhone)
 * Lourin, 24, an UMBC junior biology major, Verizon (Droid)
 * Charles, 21, a CCBC sophomore business major, Verizon (Blackberry)
 * Winnie, 22, an UMBC sophomore biology major, Verizon (Droid)
 * Eugene, 22, an UMBC sophomore pharmacy, AT&T (iPhone)

We covered the following five topics during the session:
 * Session Topics **

__Reason for buying a particular handset __ The most participants had purchased their current handset because of its popularity. Two participants were iPhone users, and other two people were Droid users, and one person was Blackberry user. Lourin, the participants currently purchased the Droid because of its popularity.

__Cell provider’s influence __ Tow participants, Lourin and Charles, stated that the reputation had influenced them when they choose Verizon. Only one of the participants, Ryou( who was iPhone user), dissatisfied AT&T services.

__Features and applications __ The common applications were the internet browser, camera, games and calendar. Winnie just uses their phone to call and text. She has some applications, but did not use it. The mainly iPhone users were use games and Droid users were use internet (facebook and twitter).

__Satisfaction with mobile device & improvements__ All users are satisfied their mobile devices. Lourin likes internet speed, Eugene likes lot of apps. But Eugene wants to faster internet speed, and Winnie wants to longer battery life.

__Satisfaction with mobile provider __ All Verizon users were completely satisfied, but all AT&T users were not. Their iPhones were sometimes not working inside building, and some area. So they want to service to be better than now.


 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Findings **<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">

This session revealed that my participants:

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> These findings can be compared with the results from our other sessions with participants. This will give us an opportunity to see what influenced other mobile device users.
 * Are satisfied with Verizon’s service
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Are satisfied with their mobile device
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Are buying mobile device, for its popularity