世論 What Japan Thinks

At the start of November MyVoice surveyed its community to find out what they thought about DecoMail. 8,806 people completed the survey; 54% were female, 2% in their teens, 21% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 25% in their forties, and 13% in their fifties.

DecoMail is basically HTML email for mobile phones, allowing you to embed photos, graphics and simple HTML font and colour changes, etc into your message. Almost all of the new generation (DoCoMo’s FOMA, Softbank’s 3G and au’s WIN) of mobile phones support the creation of it, and older phones can display it as it gets converted into a web link at some stage in the delivery process. It can also be sent to (and received from?) external mail servers, although the exact process is as yet unclear. As indicated by this poll, it has got a wee bit of a following, and in fact my wife has recently been getting DecoMail from her friends (and from me too) even though her older phone doesn’t support displaying it inline.

I’ve now just sent my account here a test message (resize your broswer to VGA, please…), which arrived as a multi-part MIME message with the first part plain text (with special DoCoMo characters stripped), the second the HTML version, and the remaining parts the inline graphics. That design is a pre-installed template, already complete with the scrolling text (which goes a long way towards getting it its spam rating), awful colours, and all the other hideousnesses! Some of the other templates are even worse…

Q1: What type of mobile phone do you currently use? (Sample size=8,806)

DoCoMo FOMA	30.4%
DoCoMo mova	13.9%
Other DoCoMo	0.8%
au WIN	13.6%
au CDMA1X	9.1%
Other au	2.4%
Softbank 3G	6.8%
Other Softbank	12.2%
WILLCOM	2.6%
Other	1.6%
Don’t have a mobile phone	6.5%

This sample seems to have slightly high percentage of DoCoMo users at the cost of au users, compared to the national averages.

Q2: Has your current mobile phone got a DecoMail feature, and if so, have you used it? (Sample size=mobile phone owners)

Yes, and currently using it	13.7%
Have feature, but never used it	27.4%
Have feature, used to use it, but don’t now	5.7%
Don’t have feature, but want to use it	8.1%
Don’t have feature, and don’t want to use it	17.9%
Don’t know what DecoMail is	26.9%
No answer	0.4%

Q3: How do you mostly use your DecoMail? (Sample size=DecoMail users)

Often use with particular contacts	10.0%
Sometimes use with particular contacts	38.2%
Only use it at special times with particular contacts	19.2%
Usually use it with any contact	2.3%
Sometimes use with any contact	12.8%
Only use it at special times with any contacts	5.5%
Other	2.0%
No answer	10.0%

Q4: Why don’t you use (or don’t want to use) DecoMail features? (Sample size=ex-users and those not wanting to use, multiple answer)

Don’t feel it’s necessary	56.1%
Takes time to prepare messages	36.9%
Compared to normal email, it’s expensive to send	20.7%
Compared to normal email, it’s expensive for receiver	12.8%
Don’t know how to use it	11.8%
Don’t have many friends with phones that can display them	7.0%
Embarrassing	5.9%
Costs money to download clipart, etc	5.7%
Takes time to find clipart, etc I want to use	5.1%
No clipart or colours, etc I want to use	3.2%
Other	1.6%
No answer	12.4%

Q5: If you upgrade or buy a new mobile phone, select what you think about DecoMail functionality (Sample size=8,806)

Necessary feature	6.1%
Unnecessary feature	32.4%
Don’t care either way	48.4%
Don’t know	11.6%
No answer	1.6%

Q6: When writing mobile phone email, what sorts of emoticons, icons, etc do you use? (Sample size=mobile phone users, up to three answers)

Face, expressions	69.9%
Heart, bead of sweat, flames, V-sign, arrows, etc	54.7%
Vehicles or buildings, etc	20.8%
Food	19.0%
Animals	15.5%
Symbols with no particular meaning	10.4%
Flowers, trees, etc	7.9%
Clothes, ribbons, other fashion items	3.3%
Other	3.5%
Don’t use any emoticons or icons	23.5%
Other	0.7%

Q7: How satisfied are you with the emoticons, icons, etc available for your current mobile phone? (Sample size=mobile phone users)

Extremely satisfied	10.2%
Somewhat satisfied	66.4%
Somewhat dissatisfied	16.0%
Extremely dissatisfied	3.9%
No answer	3.5%