世論 What Japan Thinks

Just when you thought the survey companies (and this web site too, it must be said) had flogged Apple’s yet-to-be-released-in-Japan iPhone to death, along comes the new iPod Touch and a new excuse to look at Japan’s love affair with Apple’s portable devices. First out of the starting gate was Yahoo! Japan Value Insight with a detailed survey on Apple’s iPod Touch.

Demographics

Over the 8th and 9th of September 2007 400 people from Yahoo! Japan Value Insight’s online monitor pool answered a private internet-based questionnaire. All respondents owned portable audio devices, from digital players to CD players, MD players, and even cassette players. The group was split 50:50 male and female, but no details on the age profile was given.

Note that the full survey covered people’s existing players, the iPhone and the iPod Touch in more detail.

Note also that the question the headline answers refers more to a desire to be in possession of the two new devices rather than a specific willingness to turn up at a store with cash in hand.

Research results

Q1: Would you like to buy the “iPod Touch”? (Sample size=300)

	All	Male N=200	Female N=200	iPod users N=96
Want to	11%	13%	9%	21%
Perhaps want to	29%	29%	29%	31%
Can’t say either way	26%	27%	25%	23%
Perhaps don’t want to	16%	15%	17%	17%
Don’t want to at all	19%	17%	22%	8%

Q2: Which of the following iPod Touch features do you find attractive? (Sample size=300, multiple answer)

	All	iPod users N=96
3.5 inch multi-touch screen	44%	57%
Safari web browser	31%	38%
YouTube player	29%	33%
Playback time	23%	20%
Wi-Fi features	23%	31%
Multiple sensors	14%	20%
iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store	14%	23%
Cover Flow	7%	9%
Other	0%	0%
Nothing in particular	22%	14%

Q3: Do you want to buy the iPhone or the iPod Touch? (Sample size=300)

	All	iPod users N=105
Would like to buy both	31%	42%
Would like to buy iPhone only	4%	6%
Would like to buy iPod Touch only	9%	12%
Don’t want to buy either	57%	40%

Note that when compared with Q1, here 54% of iPod users state a desire to buy but only 52% in Q1 said they would. However, the number of iPod users for this question jumped from 96 to 105 people, so an error seems to have been made in the reporting.

Q4: How satisfied are you with your current portable audio player? (Sample size=300)

	All	Apple users N=96	Sony users N=110	Panasonic users N=54
Satisfied	28%	44%	31%	20%
Somewhat satisfied	33%	40%	30%	33%
Can’t say either way	21%	9%	21%	28%
Somewhat dissatisfied	11%	7%	12%	11%
Dissatisfied	6%	0%	6%	7%