世論 What Japan Thinks

With all the survey companies keen to jump on the iPhone in Japan opinion bandwagon, here comes the latest offering from the company formally known as infoPLANT, Yahoo! Japan Value Insight with their take on Apple’s iPhone in Japan.

Demographics

Over the 25th and 26th of July 2007 400 members of Value Insight’s online monitor group were chosen to take part in a survey. They were split 50:50 male and female, and similarly the age distribution was 20.0% in each age group teens to the over fifties.

The report below is of the highlights of the survey; the full details of all 13 questions can be purchased for 50,000 yen, or 100,000 yen if you want the raw data too.

I find it interesting in Q5 that people want to spend not more than 22,655 yen, or under 200 US dollars, on the handset, well under half the price in the USA. Will we see a premium pricing plan for the iPhone in Japan?

Research results

Q1: Do you know the iPhone? (Sample size=400)

Yes, I know what it is	41%
Don’t know what it is, but I’ve heard the name	41%
Not heard of it	18%

Q2: Which of the following functions of the iPhone do you find attractive? (Sample size=400, multiple answer)

Rank	Function	Percentage
1	3.5 inch multi-touch display	45.0%
2	iPod functionality	44.0%
3	Touch keyboard	34.0%
4	2 mega-pixel camera	22.0%
5	Talk functions	20.0%

Q3: Which of the following features of the iPhone do you find attractive? (Sample size=400, multiple answer)

Rank	Function	Percentage
1	The combination of iPod, computer and mobile phone into one device	49.3%
2	Design	35.3%
3	It’s from Apple	21.3%
4	Size, weight	10.3%
5	It’s in vogue	9.5%

Next, they asked how much percent people felt they were likely to buy an iPhone. As the chart is rather difficult to reproduce, indeed to even just read the data from, I will just report the highlights.

Overall, around 13% of the whole sample felt 70% or more certain to buy the iPhone. 18% of those in their thirties, however, felt 70% or more likely to buy. However, a more interesting figure was that 24% of iPod users felt that strong desire to upgrade, whereas just 10% of non iPod users has similar feelings.

Q4: What sort of device do you think the iPhone most resembles? (Sample size=400)

	All	Teens N=80	20-29 y.o. N=80	30-39 y.o. N=80	40-49 y.o. N=80	50+ y.o. N=80
Smartphone	21%	20%	25%	19%	15%	24%
Music mobile phone	26%	36%	33%	21%	21%	19%
Standard mobile with camera	3%	1%	1%	3%	3%	6%
GPS mobile	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	0%
iPod	13%	11%	10%	10%	20%	11%
Mobile PC	31%	28%	25%	39%	29%	36%
PDA	6%	3%	5%	8%	9%	4%
Other	1%	0%	0%	0%	3%	0%

Q5: The iPhone will go on sale in Japan with a diferent price from the USA. Up to how much would you be prepared to pay for the handset only? (Sample size=354)

	Max price
All	22,655 yen
Teens N=74	21,486 yen
20-29 y.o. N=71	21,831 yen
30-39 y.o. N=74	23,514 yen
40-49 y.o. N=67	23,060 yen
50+ y.o. N=68	23,456 yen
Male N=176	23,580 yen
Female N=178	21,742 yen

Those who said they wouldn’t buy it at any price were eliminated from the results, and also were not asked the following question.

Q6: If a different carrier sold the iPhone, would you change carrier in order to buy it? (Sample size=354)

	All	NTT DoCoMo N=165	au N=122	SoftBank N=76
Would change providers to buy	15%	9%	16%	26%
Don’t want to change providers	54%	55%	60%	45%
Keep my current contract and also buy the iPhone	4%	5%	3%	5%
Don’t know	27%	32%	21%	24%