世論 What Japan Thinks

Continuing the recent series of looking at various habits, this time NEPRO JAPAN weighed in with a survey titled “The ease of use of mobile phones”, although the survey looks more at usage habits. They surveyed 4,206 people by means of a public questionnaire available through the iMode, Vodafone live! and EZweb mobile phone sites, for just under a day over the 10th and 11th of April. The self-selecting demographics were 60% female, 3% in their teens, 38% in their twenties, 42% in their thirties, and 17% forty or older. Although this may seem a youth-biased group, the young user is the core demographic they are targetting.

It’s interesting in Q5 that almost half the respondents want to try out a Panasonic phone, versus two in five for Sharp; sales figures suggest that Sharp are the top sellers of phones, but I believe this is because Sharp also sell Vodafone and au-branded phones whereas Panasonic are exclusively DoCoMo.

Q1: What type of mobile phone is easiest to use? (Sample size=4,206)

Clamshell type	82%
Sliding type	6%
Straight type	6%
Pivoting type	5%
Other	1%

Q2: Are you satisfied with the weight of your mobile phone? (Sample size=4,206)

Satisifed	35%
Somewhat satisfied	33%
Neither satisifed nor dissatisfied	18%
Somewhat dissatisfied	12%
Dissatisfied	2%

Considering that phones often have a large number of accessories dangling off them (now that would be a good survey!) that can often double the weight, this seems rather a redundant question!

Q3: For those who have changed the ring tones for mail or calls on a per caller or group basis, how many different ring tones have you set? (Sample size=4,206)

Not changed settings	25%
Two or three tunes	34%
Four or five tunes	20%
Six or seven tunes	8%
Eight to ten tunes	7%
Eleven to fifteen tunes	3%
Sixteen or more tunes	3%

Q4: How many web page bookmarks have you registered in your mobile phone? (Sample size=4,206)

One to three	18%
Four to six	12%
Seven to nine	12%
Ten to thirteen	16%
Fourteen to sixteen	7%
Seventeen to twenty	8%
Twenty-one or more	27%

Q5: What makers’ phones would you want to try out? (Sample size=4,206, multiple answer)

Panasonic	49%
Sharp	40%
NEC	39%
Sony Ericsson	31%
Toshiba	21%
Casio	19%
Hitachi	14%
Fujitsu	13%
Kyocera	11%
Other	10%