世論 What Japan Thinks

NEPRO Japan recently published the results of a survey that they conducted into mobile phones with GPS functionality. They conducted the respondents by means of an open survey available through the menu systems of the three main phone companies’ web systems, namely DoCoMo’s iMode, Vodafone (now Softbank) live! (which has just changed its name “Yahoo! Keitai”, judging by the advertisements I’ve seen), and au and TU-KA’s EZweb. Over 17 hours during the 7th and 8th of September 3,608 people successfully completed the survey; 58% were female, 2% in their teens, 35% in their twenties, 44% in their thirties, and 19% aged forty or older.

GPS is Global Positioning System, a system for locating where you currently are based on triangulation with satellites. I’ve heard it doesn’t work so well in the shadows of tall buildings or of course underground, so one would think that the use in Japan is rather limited. However, there do seem to be a number of software tools that build around the GPS system, from walking navigation systems to substitutes for car navigation via, of course, keeping track of your children.

Q1: Do you use your mobile phone’s GPS functionality? (Sample size=3,608)

Yes	26%
No, but it has the capability	25%
No, and it doesn’t have the capability	49%

I do not really believe that over 50% of the mobile phones, even of the current models, have GPS functionality available, so I don’t know if the figures above represent people mistakenly answering or if there has been a lot of sample bias.

Q2: Do you think it’s useful that mobile phones have GPS functionality? (Sample size=3,608)

Yes, really useful	29%
Yes, a little useful	46%
No, not really needed	13%
No, not needed at all	4%
Don’t know	8%

Q3: For what purposes would you like to use a mobile phone with GPS functionality? (Sample size=3,608, multiple answer)

Navigating towards my goal	69%
Navigating towards a travel destination	59%
Locating safety zones or evacuation zones during disasters	48%
Searching for information on nearby public facilities	39%
Checking the location or safety of children or old people	39%
Replace car navigation system	36%
Searching for nearly car parking	24%
Work-related navigation functionality	9%
Other	7%

Q4: What would you worry about when using mobile phone GPS functionality? (Sample size=3,608, multiple answer)

Battery life	69%
Transmission or usage fees	69%
Infringements of privacy	60%
Accuracy of positional information	43%
Coverage area	35%
Seems difficult to use	15%
Other	5%