世論 What Japan Thinks

infoPLANT recently reported on a survey they conducted into mobile wallpaper. This concerns images for the idle screen on a mobile phone, called 待ち受け画面, machi-uke gamen, in Japanese.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 24th of April 2007 infoPLANT gathered 5,941 respondents by means of a publicly-advertised questionnaire available through NTT DoCoMo’s iMode mobile phone menuing system. This self-selecting sample was 36.8% male, 63.2% female. As noted in an earlier survey, these infoPLANT surveys tend to attract a disproporionately high percentage of people on unlimited usage plans, and those on unlimited plans tend to use pay sites more.

I recently downloaded a cute Rilakkuma wallpaper from a promotion through the convenience store chain Lawson, but unfortunately that promotion has finished so I can’t pass on the URL. However, if you’re looking for some San-X wallpaper for your PC, or want to try scaling down the images to fit your mobile’s screen size, here’s their official web page containing a good number of images of Rilakkuma, Tare Panda, Monokuro Boo, and many others, with not just wallpaper, but also screen savers and calendars.

Survey results

Q1: About how often do you change your mobile phone wallpaper? (Sample size=5,941)

	All	Male N=2,188	Female N=3,753
Once a week or more	5.2%	5.3%	5.2%
Once a fortnight	9.4%	7.8%	10.3%
Once a month	23.3%	18.7%	26.0%
Once every two or three months	25.4%	22.1%	27.3%
Once every six months	20.5%	22.9%	19.1%
Once a year or less	14.7%	20.4%	11.4%
Never changed it (to end)	1.5%	2.7%	0.8%

The frequency of changing was very similar across all the age groups for both sexes.

Q2: In which one of the following genres is the wallpaper are you currently using? (Sample size=5,851)

	All	Male N=2,129	Female N=3,722
Character (cartoon, etc)	25.5%	18.3%	29.6%
Family, children	14.3%	13.0%	15.0%
Clock, calendar	12.4%	16.9%	9.9%
Celebrity	11.3%	12.1%	10.9%
Animal	8.9%	6.8%	10.1%
Scenery	8.5%	10.6%	7.4%
Brand logo	2.5%	3.0%	2.3%
Friend	1.6%	1.7%	1.5%
Myself	0.3%	0.3%	0.2%
Other	14.6%	17.3%	13.1%

The most noticeable trend was that as people got older, they moved from cartoon characters to the more functional clocks or calendars.

Q3: What kind of wallpaper are you currently using? (Sample size=5,851)

	All	Male N=2,129	Female N=3,722
Image taken by camera	29.5%	27.0%	31.0%
Other kind of still image	39.2%	39.2%	29.2%
Moving image (iAppli, Flash, etc)	17.0%	17.8%	16.6%
Other	14.3%	16.1%	13.2%

The older people got, the more popular moving images became.

Q4: From where do you often obtain images for your mobile phone’s wallpaper? (Sample size=5,851, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=2,129	Female N=3,722
General-purpose free site	46.0%	46.4%	45.8%
Free wallpaper site	40.0%	42.6%	38.5%
Make or take them myself	28.1%	25.2%	29.8%
Pay site	26.8%	21.4%	29.8%
From friends	14.7%	9.5%	17.7%
Supplied with phone	14.5%	18.2%	12.4%
Other	5.5%	5.5%	5.6%