Estimating Consumer Inertia in Repeated Choices of Smartphones*

Lukasz Grzybowski (1, 2, 3) , Ambre Nicolle (4)

1 SES - Département Sciences Economiques et Sociales
2 ECOGE - Economie Gestion
3 IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris
4 ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz]

For a sample of 9,799 subscribers to a single mobile operator, we observe switching between mobile handsets between July 2011 and December 2014. We estimate a discrete choice model in which we account for disutility from switching to different operating systems and brands. Our estimation results indicate the presence of significant inertia in the choice of operating systems and brands. We use our model to simulate market shares in the absence of switching costs and conclude that the market shares of Android and smaller operating systems would increase at the expense of the market share of iOS in such context.

Keywords: Smartphones; Consumer Inertia; Switching Costs; Mixed Logit; iOS; Android

Domains: Economics and Finance

Lukasz Grzybowski, Ambre Nicolle. Estimating Consumer Inertia in Repeated Choices of Smartphones*. Journal of Industrial Economics, 2021, 69 (1), pp.33-82. ⟨10.1111/joie.12239⟩. ⟨hal-03235889⟩