A Survey on Today's Smartphone Usage

Diploma Thesis , 2011 , 133 Pages , Grade: 2,3

Computer Science - Miscellaneous

The smartphone market is evolving rapidly, irrespective of the well-known spread within the business sector. In recent years the average users tend to replace their traditional mobile phones, PDAs and Palms with smartphones. These devices have become a pervasive part of everyday life. Dealing with huge amounts of data, the mobile device's and application's demand for certain security standards cannot be underestimated. In recent studies the individual user's needs in terms of technical features, applications etc. have not been addressed and analyzed properly. To capture the problem in its full extent it is vital to understand the user's expectations. Besides, the usage patterns have to be described especially against the background of security aspects. As mentioned before, recent analyzes did not specifically ask what the user expects from a smartphone. Hence, the main objective of this work is to get a broad picture on how smartphones are used today and what users expect, taking into consideration security aspects..

An international web-based online survey was designed and performed to measure and analyze users' behaviour when using smartphones, with the aim of finding out what they want and expect from a smartphone. The main goals were to identify user needs in the context of smartphones, to analyze their knowledge and acquisition to security aspects and to get significant data about the user's behaviour.

The main findings of the survey are that on the one hand, most of the users want a smartphone to provide classic mobile phone features, such as performing phone calls, writing messages or storing contacts. On the other hand they want a smartphone to provide mobile internet access, navigation features, multimedia aspects, a comfortable usability and a good look and feel/design. The brand, price and battery performance plays a minor role for them. With respect to security aspects, most of the users have a good knowledge about security in general, pointing out that the security of the smartphone is a very important aspect for them. The obtained results can be provided as recommendations to smartphone vendors, application developers and carriers, who can use them in product portfolio management and product development

Contents

Abstract

Deutsche Zusammenfassung

Acknowledgment

List of Figures

List of Tables

Contents

1 Introduction
1.1 Motivation
1.2 Approach
1.3 Structure

2 Background And Related Work
2.1 Smartphones
2.1.1 Ubiquitous / Pervasive Computing
2.1.2 Smartphones - An Introducion And Definition
2.1.3 Smartphone Operating Systems - Mobile Operating Systems
2.1.3.1 Operating System - A Definition
2.1.3.2 Smartphone Operating Systems - Mobile Operating Systems
2.2 Surveys - Online Surveys
2.2.1 An Introduction To Surveys - Online Surveys
2.3 Related Work

3 Problem Analyzis
3.1 Smartphones - The Evolution And History
3.1.1 The Early Years
3.1.2 The Rise Of Symbian And BlackBerry
3.1.3 The Rise Of Android And IPhone
3.2 Problem Analyzis Based On The Background To Smartphones And Sur- veys

4 Solution Approach And Realization
4.1 Solution Approach - A Web Based Smartphone Online Survey
4.2 The Concrete Practical Smartphone Online Survey Realization
4.2.1 Financial And Technical Matters
4.2.2 How The Smartphone Online Survey Was Published

5 Evaluation
5.1 The Survey Results For Every Question And Their Interpretation
5.1.1 Introduction And General Questions About The Used Smartphone
5.1.2 Applications And User Behaviour
5.1.3 Security Aspects
5.1.4 Social Networks
5.1.5 Statistical User Data

6 Summary And Future Prospects

Bibliography

List Of Abbreviations

Appendix

A Appendix: Smartphone Usage - Online Survey

Abstract

The smartphone market is evolving rapidly, irrespective of the well-known spread within the business sector. In recent years the average users tend to replace their traditional mo- bile phones, PDAs and Palms with smartphones. These devices have become a pervasive part of everyday life. Dealing with huge amounts of data, the mobile device’s and ap- plication’s demand for certain security standards cannot be underestimated. In recent studies the individual user’s needs in terms of technical features, applications etc. have not been addressed and analyzed properly. To capture the problem in its full extent it is vital to understand the user’s expectations. Besides, the usage patterns have to be described especially against the background of security aspects. As mentioned before, recent analyzes did not specifically ask what the user expects from a smartphone. Hence, the main objective of this work is to get a broad picture on how smartphones are used today and what users expect, taking into consideration security aspects..

An international web-based online survey was designed and performed to measure and analyze users’ behaviour when using smartphones, with the aim of finding out what they want and expect from a smartphone. The main goals were to identify user needs in the context of smartphones, to analyze their knowledge and acquisition to security aspects and to get significant data about the user’s behaviour.

The main findings of the survey are that on the one hand, most of the users want a smartphone to provide classic mobile phone features, such as performing phone calls, writing messages or storing contacts. On the other hand they want a smartphone to provide mobile internet access, navigation features, multimedia aspects, a comfortable usability and a good look and feel/design. The brand, price and battery performance plays a minor role for them. With respect to security aspects, most of the users have a good knowledge about security in general, pointing out that the security of the smart- phone is a very important aspect for them. The obtained results can be provided as recommendations to smartphone vendors, application developers and carriers, who can use them in product portfolio management and product development.

Deutsche Zusammenfassung

Seit einigen Jahren gewinnen Smartphones enorm an Bedeutung. Ihr Marktanteil steigt stetig an. Immer mehr Nutzer sind bereit ihre herkömmlichen Handys, PDAs oder Palms durch Smartphones zu ersetzen. Das daraus neu resultierende Nutzerverhalten muss analysiert werden, insbesondere auch im Hinblick auf Sicherheitsaspekte. In dieser Diplomarbeit geht es um die konkrete Analyse dieser beiden Aspekte. Grundlage dafür ist die Durchführung einer Internet basierten Online Umfrage. Ausgehend von einer Einleitung und Motivation erfolgt zunächst die Darlegung der Struktur dieser Diplo- marbeit. Sie umfasst im Weiteren 5 Teile. Zunächst werden Smartphones und ihre tech- nischen Eigenschaften vorgestellt, sowie ihr aktueller Marktanteil. Im Weiteren wer- den aktuell stark verbreitete Smartphone Betriebssysteme vorgestellt, um dadurch ein besseres Verständnis für die Antworten der befragten Nutzer zu erhalten. Da eine Inter- net basierte Online Umfrage der Kern-Ansatz für die Untersuchung des Nutzerverhal- tens ist, werden im weiteren Umfragen, insbesondere Online Umfragen, vorgestellt. Ihre Konzepte, sowie Vor- und Nachteile werden diskutiert. Anschließend wird der Bezug zu bereits existierenden Forschungsthemen in diesem Kontext hergestellt; mit dem Verweis auf wissenschaftliche Publikationen anderer. Des Weiteren wird auf die Geschichte der Smartphones eingegangen. Dies ist notwendig, um das Nutzerverhalten besser verste- hen zu können, sowie für die sich anschließende Problemanalyse. Gemessen an der rasanten Verbreitung von Smartphones wurden in den letzten Jahren relativ wenig Um- fragen gemacht, die den Nutzer explizit fragen, was er an einem Smartphone benötigt und wie er es nutzt. Zwei zentrale Probleme bzw. Fragen, die sich daraus ergeben, werden dargestellt:

1. Warum sind Smartphones so erfolgreich und was unterscheidet sie von herkömm- lichen Mobilfunk Telefonen, bezogen auf das Nutzerverhalten aktueller Smart- phone Besitzer?
2. Wie könnte das Smartphone von morgen aussehen?

Im Anschluss an die Problemanalyse wird als zentrales Lösungskonzept die Durch- führung einer mehrwöchigen, internationalen Online Umfrage vorgestellt, mit dem Ziel diese beiden Fragen zu beantworten. Die genaue Umsetzung und Durchführung, sowie das Design der Online Umfrage werden dargestellt. Zentrale Ziele der Umfrage waren es, herauszufinden was die aktuellen Nutzer von einem Smartphone erwarten, ihre Kenntnisse und Erwartungen zum Thema Sicherheit zu analysieren, sowie signifikante Daten über ihr Nutzerverhalten zu bekommen, insbesondere im Kontext von Sicherheit- saspekten. Die daraus resultierenden Ergebnisse werden ausgewertet, interpretiert und diskutiert. In der Schlussbetrachtung werden diese in den wissenschaftlichen Kontext gesetzt, es erfolgt eine Zusammenfassung und es wird ein Fazit gezogen. Im Anschluss daran wird ein Ausblick auf zukünftige Forschungsschwerpunkte auf diesem Gebiet gegeben.

Um möglichst viele internationale Teilnehmer bei der Umfrage zu erreichen, sowie auf Grund der Tatsache, dass hauptsächlich englisch sprachige Literatur zu diesem Thema existiert, ist diese Diplomarbeit in englischer Sprache verfasst.

Die wichtigsten Resultate der Umfrage sind, dass aktuelle Smartphone Nutzer zum einen nach wie vor erwarten, dass ein Smartphone typische Handy Features bereitstellt, wie etwa telefonieren, Nachrichten schreiben oder Kontakte speichern, zum anderen soll es auch mobiles Internet, Navigation und Multimedia Features bereitstellen. Des Weiteren soll es nutzerfreundlich sein und ein gutes Design haben. Marke und Akku-Laufzeit sind für die Nutzer eher unwichtig. Im Hinblick auf Sicherheitsaspekte schätzen die meisten Smartphone Besitzer ihre Sicherheitskenntnisse als gut ein. Die Bedeutung von Sicherheit schätzen sie als sehr wichtig ein, wenn gleich aus ihrer Sicht die Sicherheit ihrer Smartphones als lediglich gut bewertet wird.

Acknowledgment

I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dipl.- Inform. Aubrey-Derrick Schmidt, whose encouragement, guidance, patience and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject.

I owe my deepest gratitude to my family, especially my parents Annemarie and Eckbert Himmelsbach and my brothers Daniel and Stefan Himmelsbach for all their love and support during my whole life and studies. Without them I wouldnt exist and wouldnt be the one who I am. This thesis is dedicated to them.

I would also like to thank the one above all of us, the omnipresent God, for answering my prayers for giving me the strength not to give up during hard times.

My sincere thanks also go to my closest friends, especially Eddie Velez, Martha LealVelez, Marén Gerber, Marcel Emmert, Martin Krauße, Michael Quade, Nadine Baudach, Sabine Kaps, Sandra Friedrich, Stefan Matte, Stephan Lorenz and Viola Horelik for all their support, friendship and motivation, especially during hard times.

Last but not least, I am very grateful that Isabelle Nestler came into my life at the perfect time. Her patient love, enthusiasm and motivation enabled me to complete this work, without her I wouldnt be at this point in my life.

Tobias Markus Himmelsbach

List of Figures

2.1 Survey methods comparison

3.1 SIMON
3.2 Nokia Communicator 9000
3.3 Ericsson R380
3.4 BlackBerry 5810
3.5 Nokia N95
3.6 Apple iPhone 2G
3.7 G1Android
3.8 HTC EVO 4G

4.1 Online survey implementation
4.2 Survey layout
4.3 Survey control panel
4.4 Survey variables and their codings

5.1 What kind of smartphone is used
5.2 When was the smartphone received
5.3 Was the smartphone new or used
5.4 Smartphone received by the employer
5.5 All occuring monthly costs are paid by the employer
5.6 Monthly contract or pre-paid service
5.7 Flat rate (all-inclusive price per month)
5.8 The smartphone was bought or part of subscription
5.9 Providers in germany
5.10 International smartphone providers
5.11 Kind of language set on the smartphone
5.12 Operating system used on the smartphone
5.13 Smartphone used every day for phone calls and messaging
5.14 Smartphone used every day excluding phone calls and messaging .
5.15 Internet options used every day on the smartphone
5.16 Features that onvinced to buy a smartphone
5.17 Used and stored data types on the smartphone
5.18 Primarily smartphone usage
5.19 Smartphone usage for banking and payment
5.20 Best online shopping platform
5.21 Years of using the smartphone before buying a new one
5.22 Importance of the convinced features
5.23 Personal ranking of the features
5.24 Importance of security
5.25 Smartphone protection
5.26 Anti virus applications installed on the smartphone . .
5.27 How applications are installed on the smartphone
5.28 Applications are bought
5.29 Security-related notification/message answered
5.30 Passwords saved on the smartphone for future logins .
5.31 Lending the smartphone to other people
5.32 Current location based return of search results
5.33 Ranking the smartphones security
5.34 Ranking the personal security knowledge
5.35 Frequency of social network ssage on the Smartphone .
5.36 Gender of the smartphone user
5.37 Country the smartphone user lives in
5.38 Family status of the smartphone User

List of Tables

5.1 Top 10 applications or features used on the smatphone
5.2 To whom the smartphone would be lended
5.3 Social networks used in general
5.4 Social networks used on the smartphone
5.5 Age of the smartphone user
5.6 Highest level of education of the smartphone user
5.7 Current working status of the smartphone user

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Motivation

Nobody can deny today’s success and importance of smartphones, especially for business users. It started in 1992, when IBM designed and introduced the initiatory smartphone called "Simon" as a concept product at the COMDEX¹ in Las Vegas, Nevada. The year-on-year growth of smart mobile devices was 74.5 percent in the 1st quarter of 2006[23]and increased to about 150 million sold units by 2008[50]. One out of eight cell phones in the United States are smartphones[27].

But what is a smartphone? Trying to give a basic definition for a smartphone, which is not easy, Analyst house Gartner gives the definition of a smart phone as[5]: "A large- screen, data-centric, handheld device designed to offer complete phone functions whilst simultaneously functioning as a personal digital assistant (PDA)." Jason Langridge, UK mobility business manager at Microsoft, says[5]: "For us, smart phones combine tradi- tional communication devices and provide rich applications and rich data applications." On the other hand, David Wood, EVP at the largest smartphone operating system seller Symbian, says[5]: "Smart phones differ from ordinary mobile phones in two fundamen- tal ways: how they are built and what they can do. The way they’re built - using open systems to take advantage of the skills, energy and innovation of numerous companies from a vast range of industries - means that smart phones extend the phenomenal track record of mobile phones by improving constantly and rapidly, year by year."

Even though there is no unique definition for a smartphone, one reason that makes them so successful is, that smartphones are designed to a sleek, lightweight form factor that elegantly integrates to a wearable handheld[23]. For a user it’s a question of func- tionality how smartphones can be described and defined. In general a smartphone is an electronic handheld device that integrates the functionality of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) and other information devices. A smartphone provides a solution to the problem of carrying many different devices like a cell phone, a calculator, an adress book, a music player or a camera[49].

Smartphones are optimized for voice and text communication, along with the ability to access information and services while on the go. The users are able to access e-mail wirelessly, to browse the internet, and to connect securely to corporate networks. They allow users to initiate and respond to communication in different ways. They can syn- chronize the users appointments, contacts, calendar, and e-mail. Smartphones may also be programmed to respond to key business events automatically. They can be devel- oped by adding typical telephone features to a PDA or adding "smart" functionalities of a PDA to a cell phone. One key feature of a smartphone is that additional applica- tions can be installed on the user’s device. New Applications can be developed by the manufacturer, the operator or any other third party like the user or any software devel- oper. You can install, configure or run applications of your interests[23]. The users can decide, if they uses the installed application or if they use modfied ones. By us- ing a smartphone the users can make and receive phone calls, access internet, send and receive emails, manage personal information, instant messaging, data synchronization with applications like Microsoft outlook, play audio, interact with laptop and desktop computers and install applications of their choice[23].

The success of smartphones is not only based on business users. In recent years the average users tend to replace their traditional mobile phones, PDAs and Palms with smartphones. These devices have become a pervasive part of everyday life. Dealing with huge amounts of data, the mobile device’s and application’s demand for certain security standards cannot be underestimated. Besides, the usage patterns have to be described especially against the background of security aspects.

Unlike most ordinary mobile phones, smartphones can be subject to malware. For silicon.com’s² CIO Jury, security is certainly one of the defining factors of a smartphone. Nic Evans, CIO Jury member and European IT director of Key Equipment Finance, recently said[5]: "The smart phone is a management, support and security nightmare. There’s the cost of media messages and 3G, the waste of time with Palmistas trying to get their PDAs to sync with their laptops, the security risk from carrying corporate databases around on a fashion accessory that screams ’steal me’." Furthermore, Mark Edwards, CEO of device management company MFormation, says[5]: "When you have an advanced device like a smart phone, you want to make sure that no one gets access to the information on it. We see more demand [for security] where people are running richer applications like push email." These Aspects and the fact, that more and more mobile applications are added to smart devices by a huge amount of users, the question of security becomes more pertinent. Thats why the user’s behaviour in using smartphones, especially applications is another aim of this thesis. This paper wants to create a keen sense of using smartphones in consideration of security aspects and in which direction the development and growth may go.

1.2 Approach

The smartphone market is evolving rapidly, irrespective of the well-known spread within the business sector. Most of the statistical data are based on sold units per month, quarter or year to illustrate the growing market share of smartphones and their vendors, which is not the only aspect to analyze their success. In recent studies the individual user’s needs in terms of technical features, applications etc. have not been addressed and analyzed properly. To capture the problem in its full extent it is vital to understand the user’s expectations. The main objective of this thesis is to get a state of the art how smartphones are used today, what the user needs and doesnt need, also into consideration of security aspects. Thats why this thesis analyzes these different topics:

1. What is a smartphone?
2. The evolution and history
3. What makes a smartphone so successful and different to ordinary mobile phones, based on the behaviour of the user that uses a smartphone nowadays?
4. How does the smartphone of tomorrow may look like?

There are two possible ways of analyzing the given topic. One way would be to implement an application to simulate the user’s behaviour in using different applications on the smartphone, focused on security aspects. You could measure which applications are used, how often, how long and if security aspects are violated.

The other way is to make an online survey to analyze the topic. This thesis is based on a web-based online suvey to get a state of the art by the user or customer itself. The pros and cons of online surveys are discussed in this thesis and why this concept is used for the given topic. A web-based online survey is the central point of this work. With

a number of at least 100 respondents an up to date overview of the user’s behaviour in using smartphones will be given. The result can provide a basis for future studies. Furthermore, it may help to answer the question in which direction future applications and smartphones may be developed, in other words: "How does the smartphone of tomorrow may look like?"

1.3 Structure

At the beginning a state of the art about smartphones and surveys is given. Based on the concept of pervasive computing an introduction about smartphones and their defini- tion is illustrated, explaining the necessary technical terms, features and specifications. Afterwards mobile operating systems are mentioned, since they are a major aspect of defining a smartphone compared to ordinary mobile phones. Since a web-based online survey is the main concept of analyzing the user’s behaviour in this thesis, survey con- cepts are explained and discussed in a following chapter. After having the necessary background about smartphones and online surveys references to related works to this topic are illustrated to get an overview about the resulting problem. Afterwards possible occuring problems of this topic are analyzed, based on the smartphone history and evo- lution with the aim to design an solution approach. The chosen concept of analyzing the user’s behaviour is a web-based online survey. After illustrating the concept in general the specfific survey design is shown and explained, followed by its concrete practically realization related to the analyzed problems.

Having the survey concept, realization and the results, the collected datasets are evaluated, illustrated and interpretated. Based on that evaluation a final summary is shown, followed by a conclusion, a reference to possible future prospects and some final recommendations to smartphone vendors and software/application developers.

Chapter 2 Background And Related Work

2.1 Smartphones

In this chapter an introduction to smartphones is given. After discussing different def- initions of smartphones the evolution is shown. In this content the necessary technical terms are defined and explained. Afterwards an overview about mobile operating sys- tems is given. Since smartphones became very popular in the last years the actual market share is illustrated, especially which manufacturers and operating systems are in world- wide usage.

2.1.1 Ubiquitous / Pervasive Computing

To get a sense for a possible smartphone definition the term Ubiquitous Computing¹ needs to be mentioned and described, since it’s the key aspect for defining a smartphone and it’s technology, influencing our daily lifes.

In 1988 Mark Weiser alreday envisioned ubiquitous computing as a world where computation and communication would be conveniently at hand and distributed through- out our everyday environment [4, 56]. Weiser said[56]: "In the 21st century the tech- nology revolution will move into the everyday, the small and the invisible." The recent growing popularity of mobile phones shows, that this is already reality. Your mobile phone is probably the first truly pervasive computer. Smartphones can already see, hear, and sense their environment. Ubiquitous computing integrates computation in the en- vironment rather than having computers that are distinct objects. Other terms for per- vasive computing include ubiquitous computing, calm technology, things that think. In other words, ubiquitous computing means computers everywhere, available through- out the physical environment while making them effectively invisible to the user. You don’t have devices like a desktop or a lapto, the technology of ubiquitous computing is embedded in the environment. Ubiquitous technology is mostly wireless, mobile or networked making its users more connected to the world around them and the people in it[49]. Ubiquitous computing, enables users to use today’s digital tools like mobile phones, laptops, PDAs, smartphones to communicate and exchange information in dif- ferent ways, conceiving and using the geographical and temporal spaces differently. In addition of being an aspect of information expansion, pervasive or ubiquitous computing is local and global, personal and social, visible and invisible at the same time[49].

Ubiquitous Computing constists of four major components: ubiquitous devices, ubiquitous networking, ubiquitous middleware and ubiquitous applications[49]. Ubiquitous computing gets its unique qualities from the synergy of these components.

Ubiquitous Devices

- traditional input devices, such as mice or keyboards, and output devices, such as speakers or light-emitting diodes
- wireless mobile devices, such as pagers, personal digital assistants, cell phones, palmtops, and so on
- smart devices, such as intelligent appliances, floor tiles with embedded sensors, and biosensors

Ubiquitous networking

In the next years, the number of ubiquitous devices is expected to multiply rapidly. More than 300 million PDAs; two billion consumer electronic devices, (wireless phones, pagers, and settop boxes) and five billion additional everyday devices, (vending ma- chines, refrigerators, and washing machines embedded with chips and connected to a ubiquitous network) are expected. Many current technologies must be revamped as a consequence of this proliferation. Global networks like the Internet must modify ex- isting applications to completely integrate these ubiquitous computing devices into ex- isting social systems, to extend the needed backbone infrastructure for the anticipated demand[49].

Ubiquitous Middleware

Distributed computing and mobile computing needs and uses middleware concepts to make that concept possible. Ubiquitous computing also requires a middleware shell to build an interface between the networking kernel and the end-user applications running on the used ubiquitous devices. Ubiquitous middleware mediates interactions with the networking kernel on the user’s behalf and keeps the users immersed in the ubiquitous computing space. The middleware consists mostly of firmware and software bundles, executed in either client-server mode or peer-to-peer mode. Another aspect of middle- ware are user interfaces. Standard Web browsers represent the high end of interface sophistication, because more colors, graphics, and controls than users typically expect on ubiquitous devices are provided and used[49].

Ubiquitous Applications

Since ubiquitous computing is more environment-centric than either Web-based or mo- bile computing, applications will guide the middleware and networking aspects to a large extent.

After explaining the term and concept of pervasive / ubiquitous computing the next chaper deals with the definition and introduction of smartphones as they are part of the pervasive computing evolution.

2.1.2 Smartphones - An Introducion And Definition

As mentioned in the previous chapter, in 1988 Mark Weiser introduced the term pervasive computing already. And he was right, as the worldwide success of smartphones, being part of our daily lifes, in the recent years shows. It could be a possible concept for defining smartphones.

Millions of people aren’t working in a typical office anymore, they are completing their tasks in so called mobile offices . Mobile information workers need numerous tools and processes for collecting data to complete their tasks, but not only them, latest studies show that the success of smartphones is not only based on business users[23]. More and more normal users tend to replace their regular cell phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and Palms to smartphones. Mobile phones have become a pervasive part of our everyday lifes[23]. They provide "all-in-one" convenience by integrating traditional mobile phones with handheld computing devices, that’s why smartphones have recently become increasingly popular[11]. But what is a smartphone? Due to the extremely rising popularity of smartphones many different definitions are available. The challenge is to find a common and explict defintition, because there is none so far. The term smartphone is being bandied about by manufacturers, analysts, journalists, developers and end users across the world. Which would normally be a good thing, except that there are many definitions, all totally different. What exactly defines a smartphone in 2010? What did it used to mean in 2007? Or 2003[30]? In this section some different definitions are illustrated and discussed.

How do you define a smartphone? Devices like Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s Blackberry and a Nokia E6, are clearly the physical manifestation[10]. The question is what iden- tifies them as being smarter than normal mobile phones. Is it just because smartphones now carry email client, GPS functionality, Web browser, desktop synchronisation tools, as well as organiser-type functions such as diary, contacts, notepad and voice recorder. No doubt, yesterday’s smartphone is tomorrow’s ordinary mobile phone. Email and Web access were arguably the defining smartphone applications in the year 2008, but numerous mid-market handsets now have this functionality as standard[10]. Andrew Charlesworth, currently Reader in IT and Law, and Director of the Centre for IT and Law (CITL) at the University of Bristol says [10, P. 32]: "The Global Positioning Sys- tem (GPS) is the function du jour, but will soon become de rigueur. Nokia’s engineers predict half of all mobiles in use - in use, not just on sale - will be GPS-enabled by 2010. Will the category of smartphone die out as all handsets become smarter? No, say futurewatchers and market analysts, but the boundaries will become more blurred." In his point of view the smartphone evolved from a mating of the mobile phone and PDA. He refers to Darwinian metaphor, that one could say that conventional PDAs are an evo- lutionary dead end, a bit like Neanderthals, and smartphones are their natural successors [10].

In fact, this is a very abstract definition, but shows that there is a huge variety of concepts for defining a smartphone. Let’s continue with a very general definition. In general smartphones are a new type of handheld communication devices that in- tegrate the functionality of a normal mobile phone, PDA and other information devices. The user doesn’t have to carry a cell phone, a calculator, address book, music player, camera etc. The convenience of an "all-in-one" device makes the smartphone very at- tractive to a wide range of users. Compared to traditional mobile phones, smartphones are data-centric and capable of running third-party software applications[11]. Moreover smartphones represent the possibility of moving appropriate applications from the PC to mobile devices, as they mostly provide large bandwidth wireless network access, office tools and the possibility of installing third party programs (Applications)[46].

According to Mohammad Ilyas, Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Florida Atlantic University, smartphones are optimized for voice and text communication, which enables users to access e-mail wirelessly, browse the Internet, and connect securely to corporate networks. They also have a choice to com- municate via voice or text along with the ability to access information and services while on the go[23]. This mobile access allows the user to synchronize their appointments, contacts, calendar, and e-mail, manage personal information, instant messaging, data synchronization with applications like Microsoft outlook, play audio and video files and install applications of his choice[49]. Smartphones support the user’s productivity and can be customized to the business process they are involved in by adding specialized applications, that can be programmed to respond to key business events automatically. What also defines them is, that they are designed to a sleek, lightweight form factor that integrates to a wearable handheld. Smartphones are keypad-centric, they allow users to view and edit documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and databases. Additionally smart phones features also include GPS navigation tools and the ability to read business documents in a variety of formats like PDF. Smartphones usually have built-in wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) capabilities or if they don’t have they accept Wi-Fi expansion cards. The Wi-Fi (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers [IEEE] 802.11b) support allows the user to access the Internet on it’s smartphones at a hot spot or wireless ac- cess point. Most smartphones have built-in Bluetooth capability, if they don’t have they accept a separate Bluetooth expansion card. The Bluetooth technology allows the user to transfer information wirelessly between it’s smartphone and other compatible Bluetooth-enabled devices within a range of 30 feet, but not only other smartphones, also other handhelds, computers, and printers are supported. Infrared beaming may als been used to exchange information with desktop computers and other devices. Another technical aspect of defining a smartphone is, that they have built-in expansion card slots that support secure digital (SD), SD input/output (SDIO) and multimedia card (MMC) formats. The SD and MMC format enable smartphone users to add instant memory. SDIO cards enable the user to connect peripherals such as a navigation system, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b) card, credit-card reader and printer, bar-code reader, or radio frequency identification (RFID) readers. Smartphones run advanced operating systems such as We- bOS (Palm), Android, Symbian, Blackberry (RIM) Windows Mobile/Windows Phone (Windows 7), Apple iPhone OS, bada (Samsung) and embedded Linux [23, 49, 46]. These advanced operating systems allow the user to download and run customized ap- plications. An overview about the different Operating Systems (OS) follows in the next chapter. Talking about having the ability to connect in a mobile way, how does it work in general? A smartphone user could connect on the following ways[23]:

GPS - with an SD adapter or integrated Bluetooth wireless connectivity, which could enable the smartphone to read out step-by-step driving directions

A Wi-Fi module - which smartphone users can use in airports, hotels, corporate fa- cilities, and even coffee shops to access business services through the Internet (virtual private networking [VPN] software could be used to provide an encrypted wireless connection to corporate networks)

A Near Field Communication (NFC) - that is both a credit card magnetic stripe reader and a printer, which smartphone users can use with a point-of-sale application on their smartphones to take orders and print out receipts anywhere they need to conduct business

A bar-code reader - which can be used with a smartphone to track inventory, enter data into fields, identify the user’s location (as in the case of a security guard), or obtain product and pricing information

RFID readers - currently being developed-which are expected to plug in to or be built in to smartphones

Another aspect of defining a smartphone is to add and customize software (Appli- cations) and features. A smartphone can be developed by adding telephone features to an existing PDA or adding "smart" functionalities of a PDA to a ordinary mobile phone [49]. A key, therefore the key feature of a smartphone is that additional applications can be installed, developed by the manufacturer, the operator or any other third party like the user or any software developer. Compared to conventional mobile phones, the user can install, configure or run applications of it’s interests on the smartphone. For example, consider a standard mobile phone with a built-in calculator application, the user has to use this calculator whether it is helpful or not for him. But if that phone would be a smartphone, the user could install any compatible calculator application he likes[49].

After illustrating different definitions, in this thesis the expression smartphone is used to describe a mobile device that mostly unifies functionalities of a mobile phone, a PDA, an audio player, a digital camera and camcorder, a GPS receiver and a PC. Smart- phones mostly use PC-like QWERTY keyboards and touchscreens with the effect of in- creasing the typing speed. Sometimes PDA-like pen can be used for improved data and command handling. Mechanisms like T9, which means Text on 9 keys were developed that additionally improve the text input, which represents predictive text technology[46]. In order to realize communication purposes Smartphones use different techniques for creating wireless connections as follows[46]:

- GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) represents the second generation (2G) of mobile end-to-end communication, mainly used for voice calls and services like SMS (short message service)
- GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) in combination with 2G is often described as 2.5G, as it provides voice and packet data
- W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) was designed to replace GSM and is used in the FOMA¹ system (JP) and UMTS³, being able to transport data at higher speed than GSM.
- 4G (Fourth-Generation Wireless Access Technology) which is soon to be realized

Additionally, the devices provide Wireless LAN (WLAN) Bluetooth, or IrDA (Infrared Data Association) support for a shorter range wireless connectivity. A user is able to make phone calls, use an internet browser, play multi-player games or read emails using one of these connections[46].

2.1.3 Smartphone Operating Systems - Mobile Operating Systems

In the previous chapter an introduction and possible definitions about smartphones was shown. After having the technicall background this chapter introduces and explains the different smartphone operating systems (OS), especially the ones that were asked in the survey. Based on a general definition of operating systems the typical smartphone operating systems Android, Apple iPhone OS (iOS), BlackBerry OS (RIM), Sym- bian OS and Windows Mobile / Windows Phone (Windows 7) are introduced and explained. These operating systems are the five most dominant and sucessful ones on the current market. The technical standards, attributes and sucess of smartphones are based on them, knowing them makes it easier to understand the user’s answers in the survey.

2.1.3.1 Operating System - A Definition

Before introducing typical smartphone operating systems, operating systems in general need to be defined. Since a smartphone is a handheld electronic device and must be con- sidered as a miniature computer, having a processor, memory, and input/putput devices, the classcial operating system definition can be addopted. According to Dr. William Stallings, who received his doctorate in computer science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, [51, P. 51]:

"An OS is a program that controls the execution of application programs and acts as an interface between applications and the computer hardware."

On the one hand it connects between application programs, utilities and users and the computer system hardware on the other hand. Furthermore an OS exploits the hardware resources of one or more processors to supply a set of services to system users, and also organises secondary memory and I/O (input/output) devices on behalf of its users [51, P. 6,8].

Cellular phone manufacturers have used proprietary operating systems to develop a significant market share. These operating systems cannot meet software and hardware requirements for smartphone functionality, they are actually designed for simple user interfaces and telephony protocol software. That’s why an advanced, open operating system is required for the introduction of advanced applications and services to increase revenue for mobile operators. Evolving proprietary operating systems to smartphone operating-system functionality is an extreme challenge and leads to longer product-development cycles and a low-reliability product[23].

2.1.3.2 Smartphone Operating Systems - Mobile Operating Systems

After defining an operating system in general typical smartphone operating systems (mobile operating systems), mentioned in the survey, are illustrated and introduced in the following sections, especially their history, features and architecture. Knowing them makes it easier to understand the survey participant’s answers.

Android

According to the latest Canalys⁴ study, Google’s Android becomes the world’s leading smart phone platform. In the 4th Quarter 2010 the worldwide shipments of Android- based smart phones reached 32.9 million, which means a market share of 32.9% and a growth of 615.1% compared to the 4th Quarter 2009[9]. It was first announced in November 2007 and was accompanied by the founding of the Open Handset Alliance. Being the flagship software, the Google Android website describes it’s platform as [47, P. 8]: "... a software stack for mobile devices including an operating system, middleware and key applications".

Google announced Google Android as the first open operating systems for handheld devices, to make that possible, Google decided to use the open and freely available operating system Linux. Linux became very popular and is commonly used in the server and data center segment. At the same time, it is also used as the running system for small, embedded devices. Running on handheld devices, the Linux system is highly optimized for its environment, which means that only elementary parts of Linux have been used. These parts are: the basic and necessary kernel providing the most common drivers that are required during the lifetime of the handheld device, a filesystem with a very own interpretation of a fileystem layout, basic libraries that seem to be stripped down to the bare minimum to run the whole system, and more [47, P. 14].

Android is based on a 2.6-series Linux kernel, being enriched with the necessary elements⁵ that are required to provide basic functions like a networking stack, GSM/G- PRS abilities, and more. Developers can create a wide range of software for mobile use, using a framework, offered by Google, that contains a rich set of Java methods. A closer look at the operating system shows, that we are dealing with an ARM⁶ architecture based system (armv5tejl), being quite common for small or handheld devices. The 2.6 kernel (2.6.25-00350-g40fff9a in SDK version 1.0_r1) is slightly modified - specialised for handheld devices - and offers support for the most commonly used hardware devices in the embedded field of use (SD-Card, USB, and more) [47, P. 8].

On the android developers website⁷ the released and planned to be released android versions are shown, starting with the first official version BASE: Android 1.1, released in october 2008 and the newest release GINGERBREAD: Android 2.3, released in Novem- ber 2010.

Applications for Android based smartphones can be purchased, using the Android Market⁸. According to the AndroLib Statistics⁹ page about 260.000 applications and games are available at the moment.

Apple iPhone OS (iOS)

The Apple iPhone operating system has been developed by Apple. It is only for Apple devices, iPhone and iPod Touch. It was released on January 9, 2007 and is a closed, proprietary operating system with an open kernel (Darwin), being a minimalistic ver- sion of OS X; the same OS Apple installs on their desktop/laptop Mac devices. The kernel is based on a variant of the same basic Mach kernel¹⁰, that is found in Mac OS X. It’s an operating system kernel developed at Carnegie Mellon University to support operating system research. On top of this kernel are the layers of services that are used to implement applications on the platform. The layers¹¹ are the Core OS layer, the Core Services layer, the Media layer and the Cocoa Touch layer. It drives most of the phone’s resources. One of differences between the iPhone and Mac is the inclusion of most ex- tensions, or hardware drivers into the Kernel. The only addition extensions to the kernel are the USB port, touch screen, and several communications components needed for secure data transfer. Being essentially OS X, the file system is fairly predictable. All personal files are stored in the /var/root folder, having a subfolder named Library that stores information generated by normal use (mail messages, Safari history, YouTube content, and so on). All media files, such as pictures, videos, and music files are stored in the Media folder. After the release of the iPad it was renamed to iOS on June, 7, 2010 [16, 1].

The latest version is iOS 4.3¹². In 2009 the market share of the iOS was 14.4% compared to 21% in 2010 [1, 42]. For Apple, the system integration covers all the sub- systems: the OS is developed in-house, it is not available for competing handset man- ufacturers; third-party applications need validation to access the App Store; even some wireless interfaces are imposed to network operators[39]. Applications for iPhones can be purchased, using the App Store , which offers over 350.000 applications for the iPhone¹³.

BlackBerry OS (RIM)

The BlackBerry OS is provided by Research In Motion (RIM), it provides both the BlackBerry smartphone and its OS. RIM has a long experience in connected mobile de- vices, since it provided in 1995 the Inter@ctive Pager, capable of sending and receiving text messages through a specific wireless network, Mobitex[39]. The operating sys- tem was designed explicitly for the hardware. Since the entire device is designed by BlackBerry, they control how the software operates. which has had a huge impact on security. RIM has designed a proprietary operating system that they fully control. A different version is distributed with every model of the device, even though there are incompatibilities, which is a clear example of a closed market where the mobile device manufacturer develops its own OS. The interface and all applications of the BlackBerry are designed using Java Micro Edition. Developers for BlackBerries can download a software development kit for the JDE (Java Development Environment), but will have to pay a $100 certification fee for access to essential APIs. Surely, this is a financial obstacle for developers, but it is also a financial obstacle for potential malware writers who have to get their code signed for it to be effective. There exist tools for the de- velopment of .Net framework based applications, mainly because of the profile of use of mobile devices. They are oriented to allow communication through enterprise mail servers and public telephony (GSM or GPRS). RIM does not offer much information regarding the Mobile OS architecture, but offers many applications for the development and integration of existent enterprise platforms using the devices[16].

The BlackBerry OS is mainly developed in C++ with native support for Java appli- cations. Because of an ad-hoc implementation of the Java Virtual Machine it offers all the mechanisms to control hardware from a kernel with multi-tasking capabilities. The middleware layer is covered by the applications provided by the OS to support mainly network, telephonic and wireless communications, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. It also provides encoding and security mechanisms, as well as networked resource use and connections denial.

The OS offers support for a wide range of Java libraries, going from communica- tions, messaging services and the use of mobile multimedia resources. Applications are rich and robust, and there are developments for BlackBerry based on the .Net Frame- work, for example it allows applications development in more than one language. A development kit called BlackBerry Java Development Environment (JDE) is being of- fered. Even though there are several development tools, the installation must go through a negotiation process in order to check if it has the signatures needed to be deployed in the device. According to a user interface framework, BlackBerry offers a set of APIs for the creation of user interfaces, using two libraries, the MIDP (Mobile Information De- vice Profile) standard APIs and the BlackBerry proprietary APIs. Since The BlackBerry OS is enterprise oriented, it allows the integration with enterprise computing technolo- gies, such as mail servers, production applications and databases. As for Apple, the system integration covers all the subsystems: third-party applications need validation to access the App World , even some wireless interfaces are imposed to network operators, Applications for BlackBerries can be purchased, using the App World , which offers over 25.000 applications for the BlackBerry¹⁴ [16, 20]. The latest version is the BlackBerry 6 OS¹⁵. In quarter 2009 the market share of the BlackBerry OS was 22.1% compared to 19.2 % in the 1st quarter 2010[9].

Symbian OS

Symbian is the decreasing leader and holds the largest market share of mobile devices in the world. According to Gartner¹⁶ in the 1st quarter of 2009 the market share was 48.8% compared to 44.3 % in the 1st quarter 2010. Symbian appeared in 1998, from a former PDA OS (EPOC, the OS of Psion’s handheld devices), via Symbian Ltd, a firm shared by mobile handset manufacturers (Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Psion). From 2nd December 2008 to 8th November 2010 Symbian had been released under open source specifications and collective innovation, via the Symbian Foundation. On 24th June 2008 Symbian OS was purchased and set free - as in free to mobile device carriers, by Nokia, together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, ST-NXP Wireless, Texas Instruments and Vodafone. Now Symbian is managed in-house by Nokia under its complete supervision. This move was designed to take market share away from cell phone OS vendors like Microsoft. To drop the costs to nil, Nokia has promised to make the OS open source, which is a move meant to combat the up and coming Android from Google [16, 39].

It has been put in the main markets due to its big deployment in several devices, it’s available in models from other manufacturers. Symbian is also a set of applica- tions that cover all the layers in the Mobile OS stack, it offers support for different devices, and it’s also one of the most mature OS implementations, since it has been tested in many Smartphone models yielding satisfactory results[20]. The OS kernel is a proprietary development and includes multi-threading support, real-time processing capabilities, efficient management of energy consumption, with quick response times. It offers multiple language capabilities, based on an implementation of the Unicode 3.0 standard and works with a wide range of high definition displays and Qwerty keyboards. The file system is based on the FAT (File Allocation Table) format, which has a wide level of support. The current Symbian OS is built on the EKA2 kernel (EPOC Kernel Architecture 2), which is a real-time, priority, enabled multithreaded OS designed for the ARM processor. One of the key enhancements of the EKA2 kernel is its ability to handle telephone and normal threads via emulation. On top of the kernel some advanced concepts are built like Wi-Fi to cellular switching, RAM (Random Access Memory) de- fragmentation , memory management to reduce power consumption, file management, multimedia services, and more. Unlike the iPhone or Windows Mobile, the kernel does as little as possible, it outsources the details to extensions, services, and drivers layered on top of the nanokernel to maximize the stability of the device [16, 20].

In the middleware layer, Symbian provides a complete set of applications that con- trols network connections through several protocols, and contains a communications manager. Furthermore, it offers a set of services on charge of controlling the telephony, messages management and codecs for multimedia handling. Security oriented mecha- nisms are also availabe, as encryption and encoding aspects. Symbian supports a large set of the Java APIs. It also provides support of advanced multimedia, audio and video recording, playback frameworks, on the fly image transcoding and support of OpenGL 3D libraries. The Symbian Development Kit is available, it allows applications devel- opment for this platform using Java. There are different versions, depending on the device brand and model, so it is also possible to develop native applications in C++. Concerning the User interface framework, by means of the Advanced UI (User Inter- face) framework, it allows the creations of applications based on pre-built controls or the use of any of the Java APIs for the creation of advanced user interfaces, the use of rich graphics is possible due to the mechanisms offered in the framework[20].

Since Symbian controls its patents, device manufacturers are looking for other alter- natives, or to develop part of the operating system stack in order to adequate it to their needs, economy and flexibility. Such a case is Nokia, which lately has taken the initia- tive of developing its own set of applications for the top layers in the OS in his product called S60 , which is not a complete OS since it has no kernel, but offers greater flexi- bility for its devices than Symbian[20]. The latest version is Symbian 3. Applications, music and services can be installed, used and downloaded by using the Ovi Services¹⁷

Windows Mobile / Windows Phone (Windows 7)

Since 1996 the Microsoft Corporation has been active on the PDA via the Pocket PC, using its complete mobile operating system Windows CE (Windows Compact Edition) that covers proprietary products with all layers of the stack. The main orientation is to business, thats the reason why it has a high integration grade with others desktop products and enterprise computing technologies. Microsoft never left the mobile oper- ating system market, continuously improving its Windows CE. Since 2003 it is known as Windows Mobile / Windows Phone or Windows 7 [20, 39, 16]. It offers all the stan- dard features you would expect in a mobile device. Beyond core OS it also extends the assistance of tens of thousands of third-party programs that users can download and install onto their device. Over the last several years Windows Mobile has seen a great growth rate. Currently, there are three versions of Windows Mobile availabe: Windows Mobile Standard (traditional smartphone), Windows Mobile Professional (smartphone with touch screen), and Windows Mobile Classic (PDA with no phone). The partnership with mobile device vendor HTC is one of the keys to Windows Mobile’s success, which started in 2001[16]. As mentioned above Windows Mobile is technically a version of Windows CE, based on Kernel v5 of Windows CE and includes native support for Di- rect3D Mobile applications a and errors report mechanism, that allow a major control of events and his tracking[20]. The kernel also includes support for data storage by USB (Universal Serial Bus), SD (Secure Digital) or MMC (Multimedia Card). It supports multi-tasking and process multi-threading. The file system of the WM device is pretty much what you would expect from Microsoft. Over the years, Microsoft has made many significant changes to the operating system. These changes have impacted the usabil- ity, security, process management, memory management, file storage, and more[16]. Connections to ad-hoc and wireless networks are controlled and supportted by Win- dows Mobile. It provides encoding and security mechanisms that also include denial with several protocols. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices can als be managed, supported by Windows Mobile[20].

Concerning the applications execution environment [20, P. 7]: "Microsoft distributes a complete execution environment that is inherited of his own .NET architecture, this implementations is named .NET Compact Framework and allows that the applications developed in this framework can be exported to devices with Windows Mobile, like Java does it, however it are proprietary implementations and can not be extended by others."

Since code-signing is not a required to install applications, anyone can develop an application and expect it to work on any of the millions of devices[16]. In the user interface framework layer Windows Mobile lacks of flexible mechanisms for interface personalization, only one API exists of pre-built components that is used to create user interfaces. In general all the applications had the same aspect. There are products with the ability of improving personalization capabilities, but they are limited by the operating system[20].

If it is necessary to integrate mobile applications with desktop applications, Win- dows Mobile is a good choice. Since proprietary technologies are used, the code is not available for all the manufacturers, that’s why in the existing versions the hardware must be designed specifically to be used with this operative system, but it can be considered flexible because it allows to install free applications, causing a better use to the mobile device. One of the disadvantages is that it needs more resources than others, the per- formance is not the most optimum compared with others operating systems[20]. In the 3rd quarter of 2010 the market share of Windows Mobile devices was 2.8%, com- pared to 6.8% in the 1st quarter 2010[39]. The newest version of Windows Mobile is Windows Phone 7.0 . Applications for Windows Mobile devices can be downloaded and installed using the Windows Marketplace for Mobile.¹⁸ So far 11.500 applications can be downloaded and 36.000 developers are registered¹⁹.

2.2 Surveys - Online Surveys

In the previous chapters an overview about smartphones, their evolution, technical and features and operating systems was given. This chapter gives an overview about the concept of surveys, especially online surveys, as they were used to analyse the user behaviour of smartphone users. Based on an introduction and definition to surveys in general, different survey types are illustrated. Afterwards the concept of online survey is shown. In the end of this chapter the pros and cons of online surveys are discussed to get a better understanding why they were used as an instrument to analyze today’s smartphone usage.

2.2.1 An Introduction To Surveys - Online Surveys

The amazing growing success of the internet in the last years also caused improvements in web-building tools. The resulting growing acceptance of respondents to online sur- veys increased the researchers’ will to benefit from using web-based surveys compared to traditional ones. Web-based surveys, or online surveys, are used to collect data for scientific and market research[49]. They first emerged in the mid 90’s and have become a profitable part of the survey industry, especially in marketing research[32].

But what is a survey in general? According to a very general definition by The Statistical Services Centre of the University of Reading (UK), a survey is[41]:

"... a research process in which new information is collected from a sam- ple drawn from a population, with the purpose of making inferences about the population in as objective a way as possible. Most surveys use ques- tionnaires as the means by which data are acquired, but a survey should not be seen as just a questionnaire plus its responses, rather as a fully integrated part of the research strategy."

Having a general definition of a survey the different survey types need to be mentioned, as there are[21]:

1. Face-To-Face Surveys
2. Telephone Surveys
3. Postal Surveys
4. E-Mail - Surveys (Online Surveys)

After knowing the different survey types, the advantages and disadvantages need to be mentioned at this point. Knowing them makes it easier to decide if the concept of online surveys is appropriate for the problem that needs to be analyzed and solved.

If well thought out and organised, surveys have much to contribute. Breadth of coverage with maybe hundreds of respondents can be achieved, so that a wide range of characteristics in the population can be contributed to the overall picture[41].

Figure 2.1 illustrates a summary of the different survey types with their advantages and disadvantages, costs and return rates. In that context it needs to be mentioned that e-mail surveys lead to online surveys.

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Figure 2.1: This Chart Illustrates The Different Survey Methods With Their Advantages, Disadvantages, Costs And Return Rates.²¹

Having an introduction to the different survey types, the following chapter illustrates the concept of online surveys as part of the written quantitative research.

The Concept Of Web Based Surveys - Online Surveys

According to Bortz and Döring written surveys are part of the quantitative research, which means, if a participant is able to answer written questions in written form by it- self, it is called written questionnaire [6, P. 253]. In this thesis the term online survey is used, meaning the same context as written questionaire. Furthermore the CAPI-Method (Computer-Assisted Personal Interview) is more and more in usage. These online sur- veys help to reach widespreaded people. Online surveys can be distinguished in which net based technic is being used (e.g. the world wide web, email or chat) and in which

sampling procedure is being used (e.g. random sample or Ad-hoc sample). More and more the world wide web is being used for online surveys. If these online surveys are published in the internet, you get an Ad-hoc sample [6, P. 260-261]. In online surveys the medium of communication differs to the ones used in traditional survey modes. For invitations to a survey mail, telephone, social networks, forums, chats or even face- to-face communication is used the questionnaire itself is completed using the Internet [32]. These new online technologies have made surveys affordable in two terms: finan- cial investment and time-to-results, they bring higher response rates and higher survey completes due to engaging, interactive format and convenience[53].

Having the necessary background to smartphones and online surveys, the next chapter illustrates and discusses related works in these fields. It is necessary and important to get an overview about related works and studies, because it makes it easier to get a sense for the smartphone topic, its relevancy, growing success and possible occuring problems that this thesis wants to determine and solve.

2.3 Related Work

In this chapter an overview about related works in the smartphone and online survey fields is shown, referring to papers, studies, journals and books. After summarizing the main fcous of the related work some aspects are disscussed, based on the context of this thesis to establish a relationship to this thesis.

Pervasive computing was the initial basic concept for defining and giving an introduction to smartphones in this thesis. Oliver Amft and Paul Lukowicz illustrate an overview about the evolution of wearable computing with possible future aspects, based on the concept of pervasive computing. In their work[3]: "From Backpacks to Smart phones: Past, Present, and Future of Wearable Computers" they discuss the basic concept of wearable computing, followed by analyzing the past and present with a final reference to possible future prospects.

Referring to future prospects Niwaer Ai et al.[2]analyze the question: "How does the smartphone of tomorrow may look like?". Since handheld devices are not only be- coming smaller and more powerful they also offer newer functionalities. Based on an introduction to smartphone their objective is it to look into the future, referring to chal- lenges and opportunities offered by smartphones. In the context of this thesis possible future prospects are also discussed, but based on analyzing the user’s behaviour.

Another related work to smartphones enabling the concept of pervasive computing is "Enabling Pervasive Computing with Smart Phones" by George Roussos et al. In this paper they illustrate that[44]: "Although some business and practical challenges exist, mobile phones could serve as information service end points, control devices for ubiquitous systems, network hubs for personal and body area networks, and ID tokens." Since smartphones are evolving rapidly in sophistication, Andrew Charlesworth determines the question[44]: "What will they be capable of in a year or two or even five years? time? According to him, firstly, you have to define what a smartphone is, based on the evolution and technical features, to answer that question. The evolutional and technical concept for defining smartphone is similiar in this thesis.

At this point I would like to refer to an interesting related work to the concept of pervasive computing: sixthsense - integrating information with the real world²². It’s a project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), that enables Mark Weiser’s concept of pervasive computing. According to Patte Maes[33]: " SixthSense is a wear- able gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital informa- tion and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. By using a tiny projector and a camera coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device, Sixth- Sense sees what the user sees and visually augments surfaces, walls or physical objects the user is interacting with; turning them into just-in-time information interfaces. Sixth- Sense attempts to free information from its confines by seamlessly integrating it with the physical world."

Since smartphones are technical devices with mobile internet access, thats why they are also subject to malware. In the book[16]: "Malware Attack and Defense" Ken Dunham et al. analyze and allay mobile malicious code. They point out that you have to understand the history and threat landscape of rapidly emerging mobile attacks. Based on that knowledge they analyze mobile device/platform vulnerabilities and exploits to allay current and future mobile malware threats. Smartphone security is also in the focus of this thesis, but to analyze security aspects the user’s behaviour must also been analyzed.

In "SmartSiren: Virus Detection and Alert for Smartphones" [11]Jerry Cheng et al. present SmartSiren , a collaborative virus detection and alert system for smartphones. After defining and giving an introduction to smartphones they point out that the flexibility of running third-party applications also leaves the smartphones open to malicious viruses. Based on that problem they illustrate how[11]: "...SmartSiren collects the communication activity information from the smartphones, and performs joint analyzis to detect both single-device and system-wide abnormal behaviors."

[...]

---

¹ http://www.comdex.com/

² http://www.silicon.com/

¹ also known as pervasive computing, meaning the same context

² Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access

³ Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

⁴ http://www.canalys.com/

⁵ http://developer.android.com/guide/basics/what-is-android.html

⁶ ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC), developed by ARM Holdings, known as the Advanced RISC Machine

⁷ http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/Build.VERSION_CODES.html [8]https://market.android.com/

⁹ http://www.androlib.com/appstats.aspx

¹⁰ http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/mach/public/www/mach.html

¹¹ http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#referencelibrary/GettingStarted/URL_iPhone_OS_Overview/ _index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007592

¹² http://www.apple.com/ios/

¹³ http://www.apple.com/iphone/apps-for-iphone/

¹⁴ http://us.blackberry.com/apps-software/appworld/

¹⁵ http://us.blackberry.com/apps-software/blackberry6/ [16]http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1372013

¹⁷ http://www.ovi.com/services/worldwide

¹⁸ http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/de-de/apps/default.aspx

¹⁹ http://www.areamobile.de/news/18448-microsoft-nennt-beeindruckende-zahlen-zum-windows- marktplace

²¹ http://www.docstoc.com/docs/70845240/Questionnaire-and-survey-guidelines

²² http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/

• College: Technical University of Berlin (Agententechnologien in betrieblichen Anwendungen)
• Grade: 2,3
• Author: Tobias Himmelsbach (Author)
• Publication Year: 2011
• Pages: 133
• Catalog Number: V192504
• ISBN (eBook): 9783656174660
• ISBN (Book): 9783656175087
• Language: English
• Tags: Smartphone, Survey, Ubiquitous Computing, Operating System, History, User Behaviour