世論 What Japan Thinks

Between the 1st and 5th of April 2007 MyVoice looked at the use of mobile phone address books.

Demographics

17,310 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based survey. 54% were female, 2% in their teens, 19% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 26% in their forties, and 14% in their fifties.

Note that almost all Japanese mobile phones come with phone book facilities, with the latest models providing facilities such as multiple phone numbers and email addresses per name, photographs, physical addresses, web addresses, and additional notes.

When I last upgraded it was a cheap upgrade through work, so I didn’t get my address book copied, and although I borrowed the latest version of a mobile phone backup package that claimed to support my phone, it failed miserably to copy due to the cable not working correctly, so instead I had to resort to using my miniSD to backup and restore, but still it couldn’t keep group information intact over the transfer even though I was changing from DoCoMo mova to DoCoMo FOMA. My wife had similar mail group issues at an official DoCoMo shop. Because groups are such a basic feature, it really it pretty disappointing that shops can’t copy that information, as I’m sure that perhaps puts people off upgrading, knowing that they have to tweak all their address book settings.

Research results

Q1: Which mobile phone service provider do you currently use the most? (Sample size=17,310)

NTT DoCoMo	44.0%
au by KDDI	28.1%
SoftBank	19.2%
WILLCOM	2.6%
Other	0.7%
Don’t use a mobile phone	5.4%

Q2: Do you use your mobile phone’s address book facility? (Sample size=mobile phone users)

Yes	94.8%
No	4.9%
No answer	0.4%

Q3: How did you mainly register the phone numbers in your mobile phone’s address book? (Sample size=mobile phone address book users, multiple answer)

Registered entries myself	76.7%
Shop copied addresses from previous phone	53.6%
Transmitted by infra-red from previous phone	8.7%
Moved via external memory card	4.3%
Family or friends registered entries for me	2.7%
Forgotton how they were registered	0.2%
Other	0.9%
No answer	0.2%

Q4: When you want to add new data to your mobile phone’s address book, how do you do it, or how do you exchange phone numbers? (Sample size=mobile phone address book users, multiple answer)

Register from incoming call or email information	79.1%
Transmit via infra-red functions	35.4%
Write phone number or email address on paper	35.2%
Attach phone number or email address to email message	33.6%
Pass phone number or email address verbally	26.7%
Import from barcode or QR code data	2.0%
Don’t register addresses myself	0.4%
Other	1.3%
Don’t exchange phone number or email address	1.2%
No answer	0.2%

Q5: Other than address book information, what sort of data have you exchanged with other people? (Sample size=mobile phone address book users, multiple answer)

Own phone number, mail address	44.1%
Photos and movies	35.0%
Downloaded pictures	8.0%
Deco mail animated emoticon	7.5%
Music data	6.9%
Schedule data	2.0%
Games	1.6%
Work-related data	1.1%
Other	0.9%
Nothing in particular	39.9%
No answer	0.5%

Note that in DoCoMo phones at least, one’s own number does not reside in the phone book but as a totally separate entity in many phones. I wonder if anyone has tried unifying them logically, say perhaps as the first and unchangeable entry in the address book. Note also in many phones downloaded images tend to be copy-protected. It is possible to move (not copy) them via memory card on the newer phones, however.

Q6: How did you exchange that data? (Sample size=data exchangers, multiple answer)

Email	87.0%
Infra-red transmission function	34.4%
External memory card	14.5%
Via web site	4.6%
Other	1.4%
No answer	2.7%