Factors influencing the adoption of smartphones are not known in South Africa. Smartphone
adoption globally is currently measured as being around forty-seven percent of all mobile phone
users, with an expectation that it will be around the fifty per cent mark by 2017. Most of this growth
will come from markets that are highly price-sensitive, and low-cost smartphones will allow users to
shift from feature phones to smartphones, or they may skip the step of buying a feature phone
altogether and upgrade directly to a smartphone. With one of the fastest growing smartphone
adoption rates in the world.
Primary data was collected using an online survey tool, and four hundred and twenty-six responses
to the survey were collected. The survey instrument was designed to collect information regarding
the smartphone attributes and features that are most pertinent to the smartphone purchasing
decision. The research also profiled how consumers were currently using their mobile devices from
a time and frequency perspective. This was done through descriptive and inferential statistical
analysis of the sample data. The research adopted the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with
three added constructs from the literature, being Entertainment, Security and Privacy, and Social
Networking. The objective of the research, therefore, was to test the relationship of these
constructs in relation to smartphone adoption by the sample collected. Inspection of the data was
done through multiple logistic regression on respondent’s current adoption status of smartphones.
Only PU (Perceived Usefulness) was measured to be significant after inferential statistical analysis,
but this proved to have only minor influence on the overall multiple regression equation of the
research. Entertainment was statistically not significant in the research, but was measured as very
close to significance whenusing a confidence level alpha of 0.05. The application of the TAM
model with added constructs proved to be successful, although the added constructs did not result
in significance of the associated sample data. Respondents indicated that smartphone features
such as battery life and the affordability of data were the most important to them in the decision of
purchasing a smartphone. The descriptive data did reveal differing adoption trends among different
race groups within South Africa, and it is recommended that this phenomenon be explored in
further detail in future research.