Empirical Analysis of Usage and Acceptance of Software Distribution Methods on Mobile Devices

Mobile end devices, such as smart phones, are widely distributed and their technical capacities are increasing. End devices have surpassed the original idea of enabling users to talk to each other. Users are now able to install application software on their devices. This is of special interest to companies, as it portrays a new source of income for stakeholders of the value chain in the mobile internet. However, it is unclear how such applications should be technically transferred to the mobile devices. Different technologies are available for this task. This paper examines the previous use and acceptance of software distribution methods. User preferences for technical transmission ways were furthermore determined with surveys. It was not possible to identify a dominant mode of transmission. Acceptance of software distribution methods especially depends on technical affinity and the user´s gender. Thus, operating systems and producers of end devices should enable usage of multiple ways of transferring data.