世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com recently published the results of a survey by Cross Marketing Inc into the use of mobile phone alarms. Over two days at the end of June they interviewed 300 members of their monitor panel by means of a private internte-based questionnaire. As is usual for Cross Marketing with their small sample sizes, both the sex and ages of the sample were blanced. 50:50 male and female, and 20% in each age band from teens to fifties.

You may recall a previous survey I translated where the alarm feature was found to be the most-used function excluding the basics of voice and mail. I can’t say I use mine very much – only when I have something to do the same day and can’t be bothered making a full schedule entry. I don’t know for sure whether or not there is a snooze feature on my phone, but I suspect there is a key somewhere to press. Usually during the week I have a proper alarm clock, although more often than not I awake before it, but the weekends my wife sets mobile alarms for the both of us.

Q1: What method do you most often use to wake up every morning? (Sample size=300)

Alarm clock	29.3%
Mobile phone alarm	42.7%
Family or flatmates wake me up	6.3%
Get wake-up phone call	0.0%
Television timer	2.0%
Radio timer	0.3%
Audio system timer	0.3%
Wake up naturally	18.7%
Other	0.3%

Note that 36.7% of sample, or 110 of the 127 who said they used their mobile’s alarm, thought that their mobile phone was the most effective method. What the rest of the people thought is not reported.

Now, 190 people reported that they currently use their mobile’s alarm functionality, so the following questions were asked of them.

Q2: Please tell me what is important in a mobile phone’s alarm function. (Sample size=190, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Snooze feature present	132	69.5%
Easy to set alarm on and off	106	55.8%
Alarm maximum volume	102	53.7%
Various sounds can be used for alaram (downloaded ring tunes, etc)	77	40.5%
Number of available alarms	73	38.4%
Easy to stop alarm ringing	57	30.0%
Flexible number of snoozes	55	28.9%
Flexibile snooze time	38	20.0%
Rich set of built-in alarm sounds	29	15.3%
Other alarms can ring during snooze mode	29	15.3%
Alarm minimum volume	15	7.9%
Other	5	2.6%

Q3: On what occasions do you use your mobile phone’s alarm? (Sample size=190, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Every day	97	51.1%
Every weekday	65	34.2%
With other methods when feeling uneasy	42	22.1%
When staying at hotels	37	19.5%
When napping	37	19.5%
Other	4	2.1%