Title:
Analysis
of Mobile Users’ Perception towards SMS Voting
Abstract: Voting
through Short Message Service (SMS) technology is fast and reliable as
the mobile technology in Malaysia is quite advanced. Most of the SMS
voting mechanism is easily understood by the public. There is no need
to explain the voting process in detail as almost 80% of the mobile
users know how to use the SMS service. SMS voting is just another way
of sending a vote to the recipient by using short code instead of using
a normal mobile number. SMS voting provides a useful, secure and
reliable process as mobile users are informed of the charges incurred
and receive a return SMS to acknowledge that their SMS vote has been
received. The objective of this study is to study the characteristics
of SMS voting adopters in terms of demographic factors as well as to
explore the mobile users’ perception towards SMS voting. A survey using
questionnaires was conducted to gain information and opinions from a
convenience sample of 300 Malaysian mobile users regarding their
perceptions on using SMS to vote. The findings revealed that
approximately two-thirds of the Malay respondents use SMS voting, most
mobile users in the sample are single and female, and that mobile users
like to send their votes using SMS. There is a significant difference
between the usage of SMS voting among female respondents. Of the
respondents 80 per cent perceive that the ease of use factor has
greatly influenced mobile users in using SMS for voting purpose
Authors: Ainin Sulaiman
and Ali Hussein Saleh Zolait