Selecting a Mobile Device Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process

A mobile device is a handheld device, typically having a display screen with touch input and/or a miniature keyboard and accessible to the Internet. Because mobile devices are innovative and rapidly changing products, consumers are confronted with a decision-making problem to select the best device. This paper proposes an Analytic Hierarchy Process method to assess mobile devices and shows a method to select best mobile devices when purchasing. For this paper, the mobile devices considered as in the AHP model included net-book, tablet PC, smart phone, and camera phone. We derived 6 main criteria and 15 sub-criteria to synthesize the overall priority of criteria and mobile devices. The criterion of convenience in carrying showed the highest rank in the criteria. Although smart phones had the highest priority, the four mobile devices did not show significant differences in consumer preference.