It is important to understand the circumstances under which users switch from an incumbent technology to a disruptive technology. This is particularly relevant today because of the increasing popularity of mobile devices.

This paper conducts a survey of feature phone users in Korea to better understand the circumstances under which mobile device users switch to a new device. Their empirical investigation confirms earlier work in this field: users’ intention to switch from one mobile device to another is based on a combination of dissatisfaction with the existing information technology (IT) and high expectations of the disruptive IT. They also find that the main effects of financial switching cost and procedural switching cost are not important factors that influence users’ decisions in this area.

This short study provides a concise overview of previous work in the field and contributes an elegant combination of formal hypothesis modeling and empirical investigation to address the problem of understanding reasons why users switch to a disruptive technology. In addition to the advantages of the proposed approach, limitations are also discussed in the conclusion.