世論 What Japan Thinks

Softbank has just recently reported that for each of the last twelve months they have reported the highest growth in new contracts of all the mobile companies, and if the results from this recent survey, the 37th regular modile phone upgrade needs survey, by goo Research and published on japan.internet.com is anything to go on, Softbank’s growth looks set to continue.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23rd of April 2008 1,000 members of the goo Research monitor group, and although it is not explicitly stated the figures imply that they all have mobile phones. 52.0% were female, 1.2% in their teens, 15.3% in their twenties, 39.7% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, and 16.7% aged fifty or older.

Softbank has been heavily pushing their voice discount services, with intra-family calls being free all the time as one of the biggest selling points. DoCoMo’s response has been to offer the same deal, but only to those who have been with the company ten years or more! I am just now eligible for that, but I’ve got so used to using email that I cannot be bothered with it, myself!

I don’t know if there is a connection, but recently there’s been more people speaking on mobiles in trains – now that would be another interesting topic to investigate!

Research results

Q1: Which mobile phone service provider do you use? (Sample size=1,000)

NTT DoCoMo	49.9%
au by KDDI	28.4%
Softbank	17.4%
Willcom	4.3%

Note that the Japanese text used Vodaphone instead of Softbank…

Q2: How long have you been with your current mobile phone service provider? (Sample size=1,000)

Less than six months	1.1%
Less than a year	2.6%
Less than three years	15.5%
Less than five years	16.9%
Less than ten years	43.8%
Ten years or more	20.1%

Q3: Are you dissatisfied with your current mobile phone service provider? (Sample size=1,000)

Very much so (to SQ)	6.2%
To some extent so (to SQ)	19.9%
A little so (to SQ)	40.4%
Not at all so	20.7%
Can’t say either way	12.8%

Q3: What sorts of things are you dissatisfied with? (Sample size=665, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Voice call cost	358	53.8%
Data packet cost	286	43.0%
Voice discount plans	164	24.7%
Difficult to connect, easy to drop line	141	21.2%
Data packet discount plans	135	20.3%
No models I want	131	19.7%
Hasn’t got all the services I want	75	11.3%
Not wide service area	56	8.4%
Data transmission speed	55	8.3%
Voice call quality	51	7.7%
Dissatisfaction with store	50	7.5%
Aftercare	43	6.5%
Hasn’t got all the contents I want	37	5.6%
Maker I like doesn’t offer any models	35	5.3%
Image of the carrier company	24	3.6%
Other	80	12.0%