• International Journal of Contents
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 2014

In this paper, we collect and analyze the status of mobile phone applications (hereafter apps) in the healthcare and fitness category of the Apple iTunes App Store and Google Play Store. We determine the number of apps and analyze statistical aspects such as classifications, age rating, fees, and user evaluation of the popular items. As of September 30, 2013, there were 236 popular apps available from iTunes. Google Play offered 720 apps. We discover that apps for healthcare and fitness are diverse. Apps for physical exercise have the greatest popularity. The proportions of apps that are suitable for all ages among the Google and iTunes popular apps are 55.8% and 89.4%, respectively. The user evaluation of apps in iTunes is relatively less positive. We determine that the proportion of paid apps to free apps in Google is higher than that of the apps in iTunes. We perform hypothesis tests and find statistically significant differences in age rating and perceived satisfaction between the apps of the Apple iTunes App Store and Google Play Store. However, we find no meaningful differences in the classification and price of the apps between the two app stores. We perform hypothesis tests to verify the differences in age rating and perceived satisfaction between the paid and free apps within and across the Google Play Store and iTunes App Store. There are statistically significant differences in the age rating between the paid and free apps in the Google play store, between the Google free and iTunes free apps, between the Google paid and iTunes paid apps, between the Google free and iTunes paid apps, and between the Google paid and iTunes free apps. There are statistically significant differences in the perceived satisfaction between the Google free and iTunes free apps, between the Google paid and iTunes paid apps, between the Google free and iTunes paid apps, and between the Google paid and iTunes free apps.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.82-100
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• 2015

Mobile fashion apps present much opportunity for marketers to engage consumers, however not all apps provide enough functions for their targeted audience. This study aims to determine how mobile fashion apps can be used to build brand community with consumer engagement. Qualitative data on fashion mobile apps were collected from the Apple app store and Android market during the spring and summer of 2015. A total of 110 fashion mobile apps were collected;, 50 apps were identified as apparel brands that either manufacture or sell apparel to consumers, which we categorized as "brand" fashion apps, and the remaining 60 were categorized as "non-brand" fashion apps. The result of the study can be summarized as below. The 60 non-brand fashion apps were grouped into 5 app types: shopping, searching, sharing, organizational, and informational. The main functions are for informational use and shopping needs, since at least half (31 apps) are used for either retrieving information or for shopping. However, in contrast, social networking and location were infrequent and not commonly utilized by these apps. The most common type of non-brand fashion apps available were shopping apps;, many shopping apps enable users to shop from several different websites and save their items into one universal shopping cart so that they only check out once. Most of these apps are informational and help consumers make more informed decisions on purchases;, in addition many offer location services to help consumers find these items in store. While these apps perform several functions, they do not link to social media. The 50 brand apps were grouped into 5 brand types: athletic, casual, fast fashion, luxury, and retailer. These apps were also checked for attributes to determine their functionality. The result shows that the main functions of brand fashion apps are for information (82% of the 50 apps) as well as location searching (72% of 50 apps). Conversely, these apps do not offer any photo sharing, and very few have organizational or community functions. Fashion mobile apps and m-marketing elements: To build brand community, mobile apps can be designed to motivate consumer's engagement with brands. The motivations of fashion mobile apps are useful in developing fashion mobile apps. Entertainment motives can be fulfilled with multimedia attributes, functionality motives are satisfied with organizational and location-based features, information motives with informational service, socialization with community and social network, learning and intellectual stimulation from informational attributes, and trend following through photo sharing. The 8 key attributes of mobile apps can correspond to the 4 m-marketing elements (i.e., Informative content, multimedia, interactions, and product promotions) that are further intertwined with m-branding elements. App Attributes and M-Marketing aim to Build Brand Community;, the eight key attributes can impact on 4 m-branding elements, which further contribute to building brand community by affecting consumers' perceptions of brands preference and advocacy, and their likelihood to be loyal.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.544-560
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• 2016

This study aimed to investigate the influence of consumers' innovativeness, perceived benefits of home shopping mobile apps, and satisfaction with telephone orders on switching to and satisfaction with such apps (for those who have used these apps). This study also investigated the influence of the aforementioned factors on the intention to switch to home shopping mobile apps (for those who have not used these apps). Data were collected from 546 customers ranging in age from 18 to 59 with experience purchasing fashion goods from home shopping networks, and 502 of the questionnaires were used in the statistical analyses. Structure equation models were employed using AMOS 23.0. The results were as follows: for consumers experienced with home shopping mobile apps, their innovativeness and perceived benefits of such apps (convenience, usefulness) influenced their switching behavior. Additionally, consumers' innovativeness and perceived benefits of these apps (usefulness, accessibility, interactiveness) affected their satisfaction with the apps. For those not experienced with home shopping mobile apps, consumers' innovativeness and perceived benefits of the apps (interactiveness, security, enjoyment) influenced their intention to switch to these apps. These results indicate that different strategies should be developed for home shopping consumers experienced and inexperienced with these apps for the improvement of app satisfaction.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.645-654
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to compare the types and capabilities of smartphone apps related to tea, coffee, wine and beer. As a result of examining the capabilities of 200 tea, coffee, wine and beer apps from Apple App Store, 17 types of capabilities were identified. The study found no significant difference in the capabilities of tea and coffee apps, but there was a significant difference in the capabilities of tea and wine apps, and tea and beer apps (p<0.01). Entertainment-oriented apps take up a higher proportion of tea-related apps while wine apps, provide a higher proportion of consumer usability-oriented apps such as finding information about wine, writing notes about wine characteristics, finding nearby shops/cafes. In order to increase practical use of tea-related apps, this study proposes capabilities of coffee, wine, and beer apps as examples and presents app menu to promote development of tea-related apps.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.27-36
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• 2020

The popularization of smartphones allows people to instantly get the information that they want, through mobile apps, including financial services, movies and public transportation reservations, games and shopping. Furthermore, leisure activities through overseas travel are increasing due to the improvement of the living standards of people. These increases in overseas travel and the use of mobile apps lead to the increased use of mobile travel apps when booking tour packages. Although there are many studies on the usability assessment and user interface improvement for mobile apps, studies on the usability assessment for mobile travel apps are limited. We tested the usability for mobile travel apps to present some suggestions for improvements so that anyone can purchase travel packages easily and simply. We selected the top three mobile travel apps on Rankey.com that have different UIs. The heuristic method was used to evaluate usability. We present a better UI to allow users to use the app functions more easily by analyzing user interaction, ease of learning, readability, efficiency, and satisfaction for the entire use.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.399-410
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• 2018

In Android smartphones, many apps are developed as service apps to run in the background. If the memory is insufficient, Android forcibly terminates not only user apps that have not used the CPU for a long time, but also service apps. However, a service app is automatically re-launched after a short period of time, so that it continuously consumes memory space. This paper analyzes the number of running service apps and their memory usage in users' smartphones. The number of service apps accounts for up to 65% of the total number of running apps, and their memory usage accounts for up to 55% of the total memory. Moreover, we investigate the effect of the number of running service apps on the response time of smartphones and apps. As the number of service apps increases, the launching time of user apps increases to 22 times. The booting time and app installation time significantly increase with the number of service apps.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.1-24
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• 2020

Purpose An increase in the number of fitness apps across the world is a testament to the growing interest in health. As focus on medical services shifted from treatment to prevention, this type of app plays an essential role in promoting one's health and exercise management. Yet little has been known about practical effects of fitness apps in existing literature thus this study searches for factors that affect daily use of fitness apps and examine the relationship between app usage and exercise patterns. Design/methodology/approach This study surveyed people who used Cashwalk, the pedometer app for a minimum of a week to analyze reasons why they used the app. Particpants' exercise patterns were also recorded. By examining survey results of fitness app users and developing a research model based on the Customer Value Theory, this study provides real-life factors to the fitness and smart health care industry that will adopt a proactive lifestyle pattern. Findings Empirical analysis proved properties such as the complexity of fitness apps, monetary rewards, exercise monitoring and the enjoyment of using fitness apps contribute to using fitness apps on a daily basis. Furthermore, more daily use of fitness apps was shown to have a greater impact on exercise. This study also confirmed that social comparison does not affect the daily use of fitness apps and the amount of exercise, and the habitual walking was proved to directly affect the amount of exercise.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.190-199
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to describe the characteristics of mobile applications (apps) related to pregnancy in South Korea and evaluate their quality. Methods: We conducted a systematic search for pregnancy-related apps available in Korea in two app stores as of April 29, 2022. The quality of apps was assessed using the Korean translation of the Mobile Application Rating Scale for objective quality with four subdomains (engagement, function, aesthetics, and information) and four items for subjective quality. Results: In total, 163 apps were selected and reviewed. Both the objective and subjective quality of the apps were found to be desirable, with scores exceeding 3 out of 5 (range, 34-82). All subdomain scores in the objective quality assessment were also desirable. Among the four objective quality subdomains, aesthetics received the highest scores, followed by information, function, and engagement. In terms of subjective quality, the scores for a comprehensive overall evaluation, continuous use, and recommendation exceeded 3 out of 5, with the exception of payment. Only a small number of apps (n=4, 2.9%) were backed by a reliable authority, such as an expert review. Significant differences were observed in the objective quality of apps across different content categories (F=3.86, p=.003). Conclusion: Most pregnancy-related apps had desirable levels of objective and subjective quality. However, app content experts seldom provide reviews. It is crucial for nurses to recommend apps to expectant mothers that offer dependable content, regularly updated with the latest information.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.70-76
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• 1995

A few researchers have reported that major depression may be associated with higher levels of positive acute phase proteins(APPs), such as haptoglobin(Hp), ${\alpha}1$-antitrypsin(${\alpha}1AT$), ceruloplasmin(Cp) and lower levels of negative APPs(visceral proteins), such as albumin(Alb) and transferrin(Tf). Elevated levels of positive APPs and a drop in negative APPs constitute important indicators of immune activation. This study was designed to investigate whether altered serum concentrations of positive APPs and of negative APPs reflect the state of depression. Twenty patients who fulfilled DSM-III-R criteria for major depressive disorder and for dysthymic disorder and twelve normal healthy controls were included. The authors measured positive APPs(Hp, ${\alpha}1AT$, Cp) and negative APPs(Alb, Tf) using rate nephelometry and bromcresol green method. 1) There were significant increases of ${\alpha}1AT$, Cp in major depressed patients as compared with normal controls. Trends towards higher Hp and lower Alb, Tf in major depressed patients were observed. 2) No significant difference of APPs concentrations between dysthymic patients and normal controls was found. 3) Severity of depression(HDRS, BDI score) was related to Hp, Cp, ${\alpha}1AT$ value positively. Our findings are partially compatible with the hypothesis that major depression may be accompanied by acute phase response with higher levels of positive APPs and lower levels of negative APPs.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.633-637
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• 2013

By using geolocation and maps, we need to trace the path of ourselves, others, or the objects. Until now, we used a native apps development mehod to develop path tracking systems in mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers. A disadvantage of this method is that we have to work again to provide the same service on different platforms. Web Apps and Hybrid Apps are developed to recover this disadvantage. Since Hybrid Apps look like Native Apps apparently, users prefer Hybrid Apps to Web Apps. In this paper, we develop a hybrid app which can trace the path on mobile devices. The recently suggested next generation markup language, HTML5, has geolocation features. By using them, we implemented a hybrid app for a path tracking system. First, we create a web app using HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript, Then, PhoneGap, a mobile development framework, is used to convert it to the hybrid app. By implementing hybrid app, various apps which need path tracking can be developed rapidly and effectively, regardless of the mobile devices.