Abstract
Personal mobile devices are increasingly being used as platforms for interactive services. User acceptance of mobile services is not just based on usability but includes also other interrelated issues. Ease of use is important, but the services should also provide clear value to the user and they should be trustworthy and easy to adopt. These user acceptance factors form the core of the Technology Acceptance Model for Mobile Services introduced in this chapter. The model has been set up based on field trials of several mobile services with altogether more than 200 test users. The model can be used as a design and evaluation framework when designing new mobile services.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Technology Acceptance Model for Mobile Services (TAMM): Extension of the original Technology Acceptance Model to take into account the specific characteristics of mobile services (Kaasinen, 2005b)
Location-Based Service: A mobile service that utilizes location data.
Innovation Diffusion: User adoption of different innovations in target populations
Perceived Usefulness (TAM): The degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her performance in a certain task (Modified from Davis, 1989).
Location-Aware Service: A special case of location-based service: a mobile service that adapts according to the location.
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM): Technology acceptance models aim at studying how individual perceptions affect the intentions to use information technology as well as the actual usage. The Technology Acceptance Model was originally defined by Davis (1989), but it has subsequently been modified and augmented by other researchers.
Perceived Ease of Use (TAM and TAMM): The degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free from effort (Davis, 1989).
Ease of Adoption (TAMM): Perceived ease of identifying, understanding and taking into use new products.
Value (TAMM): The key features of the product that are appreciated by the users and other stakeholders, i.e. the main reasons why the users are interested in the new product (Kaasinen, 2005b).
Trust (TAMM): An indicator of a positive belief about the perceived reliability of, dependability of, and confidence in a product (modified from Fogg & Tseng, 1999).
Technology Acceptance: User’s intention to use and continue using a certain information technology product (Davis, 1989).