世論 What Japan Thinks

With cellphones getting more and more features packed into them, here’s an interesting survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by goo Research into cellphone input devices.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 17th of February 2008 1,092 members of goo Research’s online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 11.7% aged sixty or older.

I think a full keyboard is nice to have, but none of the ones I’ve seen seem to be practical, as the keys are all far too tightly spaced, rendering the device pretty useless. A fingerprint reader is popular here, perhaps with people thinking about the security aspect, although compared to using a PIN, I don’t really think there is much of a benefit. The acceleration sensor is for motion games, and features on some of the 905i series of phones from NTT DoCoMo, but I cannot really see the practical use at all.

Research results

Q1: Do you think a full keyboard is needed on a cellphone? (Sample size=1,092)

Needed	3.0%
Useful to have	39.9%
Not needed	41.5%
Can’t say either way	15.6%

Q2: Do you think a fingerprint reader is needed on a cellphone? (Sample size=1,092)

Needed	7.6%
Useful to have	41.5%
Not needed	35.2%
Can’t say either way	15.8%

Q3: Do you think an acceleration sensor is needed on a cellphone? (Sample size=1,092)

Needed	1.0%
Useful to have	16.7%
Not needed	58.0%
Can’t say either way	24.4%