External memory, one seg TV and infra-red key mobile features in Japan
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With the recent news that KDDI was tops for net new customers in 2007, it is instructive to look at a recent report on japan.internet.com regarding the 35th regular mobile phone upgrade needs survey conducted by goo Research once a month, every month since April 2004.
Demographics
Over the 20th and 21st of December 2007 exactly 1,000 members of the goo Research monitor group who carried a mobile phone (the reported text says just internet users, but everyone in the survey carried a mobile phone, so the sample must have been pre-screened for mobile phone ownership) completed a private online questionnaire. 50.8% of the sample was male, 1.2% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 37.4% in their thirties, 28.8% in their forties, and 16.8% aged fifty or older.
With the hype for Apple’s iPhone release in Japan beginning to build up, it is interesting to note that from the list of desired features in Q2, the following are not present on the US or Europe models of that device: external memory card, one seg digital terrestrial or analogue television, infra-red, FeliCa (Osaifu Keitai, electronic wallet), water resistance, GPS, FM, AM or digital radio, document viewer, skinning, and an electronic compass. Present are merely music playback, full browser, Bluetooth, and wireless LAN. Of course, one can argue that the questions were biased towards Japanese phones, but Apple will have to face the same issue of customer bias when they try to sell the iPhone in Japan. However, in Q4 people seem to hold the screen display as key, an area where the iPhone is strong.
Research results
Q1: Who is your current mobile phone service provider? (Sample size=1,000)
NTT DoCoMo 50.8% au by KDDI 28.1% SoftBank 16.7% Willcom 4.4% Q2: When upgrading your phone, what are the important functions or features you look for? (Sample size=1,000, multiple answer)
External memory card 34.3% One seg digital terrestrial television 27.2% Infra-red 22.7% Music playback 20.0% FeliCa (Osaifu Keitai, electronic wallet) 15.8% Waterproof, water resistance 14.9% GPS 12.3% Full browser 8.8% FM radio 6.2% Bluetooth 5.0% Document viewer (Excel, etc) 3.8% AM radio 3.4% Wireless LAN 3.4% Digital radio 2.6% Analogue television 2.4% Kisekae (changing user interface look, skinning) 2.2% Electronic compass 2.1% Other 2.4% Nothing in particular 28.9% Q3: About what resolution of camera do you need on a mobile phone? (Sample size=1,000)
4 megapixels or more 21.2% Around 3 megapixels 28.9% Around 2 megapixels 25.3% Around 1 megapixels 13.1% Around 300,000 pixels 1.5% Around 100,000 pixels 0.8% Don’t need a camera 9.2% Q4: Regarding the main display on a mobile phone, what are you particular about? (Sample size=1,000, multiple answer)
Size 63.8% Resolution 45.2% Can read even in bright sunlight 33.6% Colour quality 24.0% Character font quality 22.1% Brightness of backlight 21.3% Dirt, scratch resistance 19.1% Size of wallpaper display area 11.4% Flexibility of backlight, other settings 10.3% Other 0.5% No particular issues regarding main screen 10.3% Compared to when this question was asked in the 26th survey, five percentage points more are fussy about the display size and three percentage points more are fussy about the resolution.
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