Technophobia, gender influences and consumer decision‐making for technology‐related products

Mobile Internet technology (MIT) is an extension of the Internet beyond the static terminal of the personal computer or television. It has been forecasted that by the end of 2005, there will be almost 500 million users of mobile m‐commerce, generating more than $200 billion in revenues. Contributes to the body of knowledge on how to approach the study of MIT products. Proposes that consumer perceptions of MIT products can lead to dichotomous decision making and argues that the challenge for marketers is to harness and fit this dichotomy to the MIT product continuum through an understanding of consumer psychological and attribution factors. The overall findings indicate that technology anxiety correlates with demographic variables such as age, gender and academic qualifications. Therefore, the implications of the study are that technology product engineering and marketing should recognise the importance of: study of the psychosocial needs of technology products, human factors in engineering design which need to fit these needs; and developing product designs facilitating consumers' psychosocial needs.