Title: Factors affecting mobile application usage: exploring the roles of gender, age, and application types from behaviour log data

Authors: Kyung-Ho Hwang; Sylvia M. Chan-Olmsted; Sang-Hyun Nam; Byeng-Hee Chang

Addresses: Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Sungkyunkwan University, 61409 Suseon Hall, 25-2, Sungkyunkwan-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea ' Department of Telecommunication, College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida, 3063 Weimer Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA ' Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Sungkyunkwan University, 61409 Suseon Hall, 25-2, Sungkyunkwan-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea ' Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Sungkyunkwan University, 61409 Suseon Hall, 25-2, Sungkyunkwan-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea

Abstract: This study empirically investigates the effect of mobile app types, and the moderating effects of gender and age on mobile apps usage through actual user experience and behaviour log data, as captured by metered software on 7,374 panellists comprised of mobile phone users in the United States in 2013. The apps usage variable is examined from both the width (i.e., reach) and depth (i.e., time and frequency intensity) aspects to capture the multiplicity of mobile apps usage behaviour. The results of this study demonstrated that all of the mobile apps usage dimensions (reach, time usage intensity and frequency usage intensity) were significantly affected by the type of mobile app, with the exception of specific mobile apps in each dimension, by utilising multiple regression with dummy variables. Furthermore, the effect of the mobile app type on its usage was mostly moderated by age alone.

Keywords: behaviour log data; behavioural measurement; mobile applications; mobile apps; mobile app usage; usage patterns; mobile communications; mobile devices; self-reporting; smartphones; gender; age; application types; user experience; USA; United States.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2016.076285

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2016 Vol.14 No.3, pp.256 - 272

Received: 03 Nov 2014
Accepted: 29 Oct 2015
Published online: 30 Apr 2016 *

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