世論 What Japan Thinks

infoPLANT recently carried out a survey into how people used their DoCoMo mobile phone’s default screen display. Over a week at the start of April they interviewed 6,358 people, 65.8% of them female, by means of a self-selecting survey from the iMode main menu.

Note that on the newer models of phones, not just a static wallpaper may be used, but also animations or applets may be set to run on the default display. The Japanese word 待ち受け画面, machiuke gamen is used to describe the wallpaper feature that this survey is concerned with. It refers to the display that appears after the phone has been idle for a few seconds, or perhaps when the phone is woken from sleep mode but before going to menu mode.

My own phone usually has seasonal Pinky pictures with calendar overlay.

Q1: About how often do you change your mobile phone’s default screen display? (Sample size=6,358)

	All	Male N=2,176	Female N=4,182
Once a week or more	5.5%	5.9%	5.2%
Once a fortnight	11.8%	10.0%	12.7%
Once a month	27.5%	23.1%	29.8%
Once every two or three months	25.4%	23.6%	26.4%
Once every six months	17.7%	20.1%	16.5%
Once a year or less	11.0%	15.1%	8.9%
Never changed it	1.1%	2.2%	0.5%

Looking at the detailed age breakdown, the most significant figure is that for teenage girls; 11.3% changed their background screen weekly or more, and 27.2% changed every fortnight or so, double the figures for almost every other age group.

Q2: Select from the list below what type of default screen you are currently using. (Sample size=6,358)

	All	Male N=2,176	Female N=4,182
Character	27.9%	19.7%	32.1%
Family or children	13.9%	12.0%	14.9%
Clock or calendar	12.7%	17.3%	10.2%
Celebrity, TV personality, etc	11.4%	12.5%	10.9%
Animal	8.4%	5.9%	9.7%
Scenery	8.0%	11.5%	6.2%
Brand logo	2.8%	3.8%	2.4%
Friend	1.6%	1.9%	1.5%
Myself	0.3%	0.0%	0.5%
Other	12.9%	15.4%	11.5%

Almost all age groups prefered character artwork, barring men in their forties who chose a clock or calendar, and men fifty or older who prefered scenery. Somewhat surprising to me, over 10% of teenage boys had brand logos, over double the percentage of any other group, male or female.

Q3: What sort of media is your screen background? (Sample size=6,358)

	All	Male N=2,176	Female N=4,182
Still image taken by camera	28.8%	24.7%	31.0%
Still image not taken by camera (eg illustration)	39.8%	40.1%	39.6%
Moving image (Flash, iAppli, etc)	16.8%	17.0%	16.6%
Other	14.6%	18.2%	12.7%

I’m not really sure what the other category would be – perhaps composite images or a slideshow? Camera image refers to images either taken personally or downloaded from a third party, I believe.

Q4: From where do you often obtain your mobile phone screen backgrounds? (Sample size=6,358, mutliple answer)

	All	Male N=2,176	Female N=4,182
From free site	66.9%	70.0%	65.4%
Make them myself	31.1%	26.5%	33.5%
From pay site	28.7%	24.4%	31.0%
From commercial promotional site	24.6%	25.9%	23.9%
From friends	16.5%	10.8%	19.4%
From backgrounds built-into the phone	13.4%	18.2%	10.9%
Other	4.0%	4.0%	4.0%
Never changed my screen	1.1%	2.2%	0.5%

Well over a quarter of the users paying for downloads is quite a significant figure, I feel. Looking at the detailed breakdown, the younger one was, the more they prefered free sites, and similarly the older, the more they prefered pay sites, except for women over fifty who kept their purse strings significantly tight! Teenagers were about twice as likely as those in other age groups to get their backgrounds from friends.

j-k:
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