世論 What Japan Thinks

A recent survey reported on by ITmedia and conducted by ASCII Media Works looked at Mac users, in particular contrasting them with Windows users.

Demographics

In mid-September 2008 278 Mac users and 494 Windows PC users who were memebers of the ASCII General Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The age and sex profiles were not noted, although given the small amount of housewives and given that ASCII is a computer magazine, the respondent pool appears to be mostly male.

There’s so many great figures in this survey – Mac users earn more, are more creative and are more interested in foreign goods, whereas Windows users are more conservative and like the same old same. The most stunning figure, however, was for liked mobile phone manufacturers in Q7; not surprisingly over two in five Mac users were iPhone fans, but a surprisingly-low 5% of Windows users expressed an interest. Following up, Q8 showed that over half as many again Mac users were with SoftBank; remember, SoftBank carry the iPhone, and with similar percentages for other carriers, one must conclude that around one in ten Mac owners have bought iPhones to accompany their phones from other carriers.

Research results

Q1: How much is the total yearly income of your household? (Sample size=278 and 494)

	Mac users N=278	Windows users N=494
Up to 3 million yen	10.4%	13.8%
3 to 5 million yen	24.1%	27.7%
5 to 7 million yen	21.2%	22.0%
7 to 9 million yen	11.1%	12.8%
Over 9 million yen	21.3%	11.0%
Don’t know, won’t say	11.9%	12.5%

Q2: What is your occupation? (Sample size=278 and 494)

	Mac users N=278	Windows users N=494
Senior management, board member	6.0%	3.3%
Administration	6.3%	6.0%
Design, creative	9.7%	1.3%
Eduation	8.6%	2.3%
Computer-related specialist, technical	11.6%	10.3%
Other specialist, technical	15.7%	13.3%
Sales	6.7%	6.5%
Office work	6.7%	13.5%
Manual labour, technical	5.2%	8.8%
Shop work	1.1%	1.8%
Part time, casual	2.6%	3.5%
Other work	13.1%	13.5%
Unemployed (including retired)	4.1%	8.0%
Student	2.2%	5.0%
Housewife	0.4%	3.0%

Q3: Which of the following match your own character? (Sample size=278 and 494, multiple answer, top 10 Mac user answers)

	Mac users N=278	Windows users N=494
Like differences in people	51.8%	33.4%
Stubborn	44.6%	36.2%
Going my way	41.7%	34.4%
Creative	32.4%	13.2%
Conservative	25.2%	33.8%
Like the usual	22.7%	41.3%
Independent	22.7%	16.2%
Social	21.6%	10.9%
Cooperative	21.2%	19.8%
Secretive	19.4%	13.4%

Q4: Which of the following areas are you interested in? (Sample size=278 and 494, multiple answer)

	Mac users N=278	Windows users N=494
International affairs	50.0%	37.9%
Politics, finance, manufacturing	56.5%	56.3%
Events, arts	27.3%	32.2%
Money	32.4%	33.2%
Education	23.0%	15.4%
English study	18.7%	10.5%
Other study	10.8%	7.5%
Lifestyle: computer, electronics	82.4%	75.7%
Lifestyle: fashion	32.0%	15.8%
Lifestyle: foodstuffs	10.4%	5.7%
Lifestyle: other	5.8%	6.1%
Domestic travel	37.4%	37.9%
Overseas travel	25.9%	17.0%
Listening to music	59.7%	45.3%
Playing instruments	27.0%	13.6%

Q5: How long have you been using computers? (Sample size=278 and 494)

	Mac users N=278	Windows users N=494
Less than five years	1.1%	7.7%
Five to seven years	5.8%	9.9%
Seven to ten years	12.2%	15.6%
Ten to fifteen years	28.8%	26.9%
Fifteen to twenty years	19.8%	19.2%
Twenty years or more	32.4%	20.6%

There next followed a chart of the results of why people choose to use a Mac or a PC plotted in 2D which I won’t try to reproduce, but the results showed that the factors that were key for Mac users but not for Windows users included a nice design, a polished OS, Apple’s image, and ease of use. Conversely, the only key feature for Windows users that wasn’t key for Mac users was that it works with peripherals that they want to use.

Next was a 2D plot of the image of Mac and Windows. Mac was strongest for originality, being on the leading edge, creativity, exciting, and being minor. Windows was major, the standard, and business-like.

Q6: What impression do you have of Apple? (Sample size=278, multiple answer, top 10 answers)

Changed people’s music lifestyle	70.1%
Make products that appeal to one’s sensibilities	69.4%
Very particular about things	66.5%
Have policies	65.5%
Strong leadership from management	62.6%
Make products designers can use	54.3%
Cool	51.1%
High-quality advertisements	49.6%
Want to recommend them to people	42.8%
Are changing the mobile phone world	41.4%

Q7: What mobile phone manufacturers do you like? (Sample size=278 and 494, multiple answer, Mac users top 10)

	Mac users N=278	Windows users N=494
Apple	42.9%	5.0%
Sharp	32.7%	37.8%
Sony-Ericsson	21.4%	19.2%
Panasonic	21.1%	31.3%
Casio	11.7%	14.0%
Nokia	11.7%	6.9%
Toshiba	10.2%	13.4%
NEC	8.3%	20.3%
Sanyo	6.8%	3.7%
Fujitsu	4.5%	10.2%

Q8: Who is/are your current mobile phone service provider(s)? (Sample size=278 and 494, multiple answer)

	Mac users N=278	Windows users N=494
NTT docomo	42.1%	45.7%
SoftBank	32.7%	19.8%
au	30.2%	30.6%
Willcom	5.0%	6.7%
Disney Mobile	0.4%	0.2%
Other	1.8%	2.0%
Don’t have a mobile phone	4.3%	4.7%

Q9: Which of the following consumer goods do you own? (Sample size=278 and 494, multiple answer)

	Mac users N=278	Windows users N=494
35 inch or more flat screen television	19.8%	20.2%
Less than 35 inch flat screen television	29.5%	25.9%
Projector	5.8%	4.5%
Blu-Ray recorder	5.0%	5.3%
Domestic audio system	60.1%	47.2%
Overseas audio system	19.8%	11.1%
Other overseas home electricals	13.3%	8.7%
Overseas watch	33.1%	18.8%
Overseas furtniture	12.2%	4.9%
Other	6.5%	4.3%

Q10: Which of the following car makers, brands do you like? (Sample size=278 and 494, multiple answer, Mac users top 10)

	Mac users N=278	Windows users N=494
Honda	39.9%	32.8%
Toyota	28.4%	48.2%
Nissan	21.9%	25.3%
BMW	18.3%	14.2%
Porsche	16.2%	8.5%
Ferrari	13.3%	7.9%
Volkswagen	11.2%	7.1%
Audi	11.2%	7.3%
Volvo	9.0%	5.5%
Mercedes-Benz	8.6%	6.7%