By Ken Y-N (
September 24, 2008 at 22:53)
· Filed under Hardware, Mobile, Polls
With most phones now crammed full with the latest features, most manufacturers are putting more effort into the design aspect of their phones as the differentiating feature. To see how consumers perceive the look of their mobiles, MyVoice conducted a survey into mobile phone design.
Demographics
Over the first five days of September 2008 15,502 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens,l 15% in their twenties, 36% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 19% in their fifties.
The first phone that I felt was stunning in design terms was the Sharp Aquos with the rotating screen that could change from portrait for standard email use to landscape for One Seg television watching. That phone first came out on SoftBank, but it’s now offered by all three major carriers. To my overseas readers - have Sharp licenced that technology to any foreign manufacturers? I seem to remember hearing that Panasonic’s push-button opening for clamshells has been licenced overseas, but Panasonic seem to keep that feature to themselves as a differentiating factor for the domestic market.
In the graph, I kept Sony-Ericsson separate as some of their hardware is worldwide, some domestic only.
Research results
Q1: Who is your current mobile phone carrier? If more than one, choose the one you use privately the most. (Sample size=15,502)
| NTT docomo |
42.9% |
| au by KDDI |
28.5% |
| SoftBank |
21.2% |
| E-Mobile |
0.1% |
| Willcom |
2.% |
| Don’t use a mobile phone |
5.2% |
Note that this is the first survey from MyVoice where I have seen SoftBank over 20% and NTT docomo (note that they seem to have now dropped the MiXeD cAsE name) closer to 40% than 50%.
Q2: Who is the maker of the mobile phone in Q1? (Sample size=mobile phone users)
| Sharp |
24.4% |
| Panasonic |
14.7% |
| NEC |
10.9% |
| Toshiba |
10.4% |
| Sony Ericsson |
8.0% |
| Fujitsu |
5.4% |
| Casio |
5.2% |
| Sanyo |
4.9% |
| Kyocera |
4.5% |
| Mitsubishi |
3.2% |
| Hitachi |
3.0% |
| Nokia |
0.4% |
| LG (Lucky Goldstar) |
0.4% |
| Apple |
0.3% |
| Motorola |
0.2% |
| Other |
1.5% |
| Don’t know |
2.2% |
| No answer |
0.4% |
Q3: When you bought your current phone, how important was the design? (Sample size=mobile phone users)
| Rather important |
21.8% |
| Important to some degree |
49.0% |
| Not really important |
21.0% |
| Not important at all |
7.5% |
| No answer |
0.7% |
Q4: When selecting a mobile phone, what aspects of the design are important? (Sample size=mobile phone users, multiple answer)
| Overall shape, silouette |
31.8% |
| Colour, colour scheme |
23.0% |
| Screen size |
11.0% |
| Thickness |
10.0% |
| Button shape, size |
8.9% |
| Feel |
3.1% |
| Screen layout, look |
2.3% |
| Brand, character collaboration |
0.5% |
| Designer collaboration |
0.1% |
| Other |
1.9% |
| No particularly important design points |
7.2% |
| No answer |
0.2% |
Q5: Which of the following describes your image of the design of docomo mobile phones? (Sample size=15,502, multiple answer)
| Simple |
23.4% |
| Traditional |
16.4% |
| Don’t get tired of them |
14.6% |
| Business-oriented |
14.5% |
| Stylish |
9.6% |
| Adult |
9.4% |
| Cool |
8.1% |
| Masculine |
7.3% |
| Bulky |
6.4% |
| Naff |
5.2% |
| Casual |
5.0% |
| Novel |
4.2% |
| Light |
3.8% |
| Gorgeous |
3.7% |
| Futuristic |
3.7% |
| Cute |
3.5% |
| Feminine |
2.7% |
| Get tired of them |
2.7% |
| Elegant |
1.8% |
| Retro |
1.2% |
| Childish |
0.9% |
| Wild |
0.5% |
| None of the above |
9.4% |
| Don’t know |
22.6% |
Q6: Which of the following describes your image of the design of au mobile phones? (Sample size=15,502, multiple answer)
| Casual |
19.8% |
| Stylish |
19.5% |
| Novel |
18.8% |
| Cute |
15.9% |
| Light |
12.1% |
| Feminine |
12.0% |
| Simple |
1.7% |
| Cool |
10.1% |
| Don’t get tired of them |
7.3% |
| Futuristic |
7.2% |
| Childish |
6.7% |
| Get tired of them |
3.1% |
| Naff |
2.3% |
| Gorgeous |
2.1% |
| Masculine |
1.8% |
| Business-oriented |
1.7% |
| Adult |
1.6% |
| Bulky |
1.1% |
| Elegant |
1.0% |
| Traditional |
0.9% |
| Wild |
0.9% |
| Retro |
0.6% |
| None of the above |
5.8% |
| Don’t know |
21.8% |
Q7: Which of the following describes your image of the design of SoftBank mobile phones? (Sample size=15,502, multiple answer)
| Novel |
22.8% |
| Simple |
16.8% |
| Stylish |
14.4% |
| Futuristic |
12.8% |
| Casual |
10.6% |
| Cool |
10.3% |
| Light |
9.6% |
| Cute |
7.4% |
| Gorgeous |
6.3% |
| Don’t get tired of them |
5.3% |
| Feminine |
5.0% |
| Business-oriented |
4.2% |
| Childish |
3.8% |
| Masculine |
3.4% |
| Adult |
3.1% |
| Get tired of them |
3.0% |
| Naff |
2.8% |
| Elegant |
1.4% |
| Bulky |
1.2% |
| Wild |
1.2% |
| Traditional |
0.7% |
| Retro |
0.5% |
| None of the above |
6.7% |
| Don’t know |
24.0% |
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Joe said,
September 24, 2008 @ 23:26
I use NTT Docomo just because they get all the games
fh said,
September 25, 2008 @ 15:07
In the US, there are no mechanical rotating screen devices. But it’s probably due to factors besides just licensing, namely lack of adoption of lifestyle services (no 1seg, limited internet capability, preference of simple text messaging over MMS/email, and separate devices for multimedia).
There is also a growing stigma of flip phones being inferior (or at least certainly not as popular as in Asia), probably due to the plethora of “free” cheap/plastic flip phones that come with service contracts; the RAZR’s low quality did not help this. Sliders have been quite popular, and of course touchscreen phones are becoming the new fashion.
But in general (for the US), poor 3G adoption/competition, lack of strong features, and crippling subsidies means that most devices and features are simply unremarkable no matter how you look at it.