• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.37-50
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• 2014

The purpose of this research is to look upon the smartphone market from the perspective of business ecosystems and to extract the critical success factors of OS platforms. Furthermore, this research aims to verify the effect of those factors on increasing utility resulting from the rising number of users as well as on intention of use. In order to do this, OS compatibility and OS upgradability were presented as the major characteristics of OS platforms and a logical causal relationship between network effect and intention to use which shows the increase of utility according to the number of users was established which was then followed by an empirical analysis. The results of the research showed that OS compatibility and OS upgradability both had positive effects on network effect and intention to use. By presenting the characteristics of OS platforms, a subject which has lacked pervious empirical studies, and establishing a logical causal relationship for the role platform characteristics play in the formation of business ecosystem in the smartphone market, it is expected that the findings of this research will contribute greatly not only academically but also in practical applications.