Investigating the innovation resistance of smart phone usage in Taiwan

Taiwan is one of those countries with fairly high mobile phone and smart phone penetration. By 2009, Taiwan´s mobile phone penetration was hovering near 110%. By June 2013, more than 45% Taiwanese over age 13 owned smart phone. However, there are still some Taiwanese intentionally refusing to accept this new product of technology innovation product, the smart phone, for different reasons. In this paper, the researcher launched in-depth interviews to interview traditional mobile users who refused to accept smart phone when choosing their “new” mobile phone. The researcher also added some quantitative survey data to ascertain those factors which may relate to innovation resistance of smart phones. This study shows that besides the much higher price of smart phone, there were still many factors which caused consumers to refuse the new technology. Those reasons include: a fear of the complexity of smart phone functions, a preference toward being free from the perceived bother or time consumption, a contentedness with their traditional mobile phone, as well as personal perceptions and poor impressions regarding smartphone users. In sum, researchers not only need to know why and how consumers accepted smart phones but also why and how they refused to adopt smart phones.