世論 What Japan Thinks

Last month’s survey on Blu-ray and HD DVD was rightly criticised for rather dubious data, let alone the small sample size, so hopefully I can make amends with this detailed report from DIMSDRIVE into Blu-ray recorders.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 30th of October 2008 9,141 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were male, 1.2% in their teens, 12.8% in their twenties, 33.1% in their thirties, 30.5% in their forties, 15.% in their fifties, and 7.2% aged sixty or older. By household salary, 7.4% earned less than 2 million yen a year, 20.1% less than 4 million yen, 23.5% less than 6 million yen, 15.5% less than 8 million yen, 10.2% less than 10 million yen, 7.8% less than 15 million yen, and 1.9% over 15 million yen. 13.6% didn’t know or declined to answer.

When I reported last month’s survey it got picked up by an obscure corner of Kotaku, which was then picked up by another online mag and featured prominently, even getting onto Google News UK’s front page, but any credit to me got lost on the way. Mind you, if I had got a link back, I’d probably have had my old server blow up even earlier!

Eikichi Yazawa is an aging rocker who features in Sony adverts like this one:

Research results

Q1: Do you know about Blu-ray or Blu-ray Disk? (Sample size=9,141)

Q2: What first comes to mind when you hear Blu-ray? (Sample size=8,844, free answer)

Q2A: What first comes to mind when you hear Blu-ray? (Sample size=men who know Blu-ray, free answer)

Q2B: What first comes to mind when you hear Blu-ray? (Sample size=women who know Blu-ray, free answer)

Q3: What kinds of devices with Blu-ray playback or recording do you have at home? (Sample size=8,844, multiple answer)

By salary, the more money one made the more likely one was to have a Blu-ray recorder, with the richest band five times more likely than the poorest band to have one. By television type, Hi-vision-capable television owners were most likely to have one, followed by standard resolution plasma, then LCD.

Q4: Why did you choose a Blu-ray recorder over a DVD recorder, hard disk recorder, etc? (Sample size=331, multiple answer)

Q5: When buying your Blu-ray recorder, what did you reference? (Sample size=331, multiple answer)

Lining up by the sexes, women were around twice as likely to listen to the shop staff or their friends, and slightly more likely to look at the models in the shop, whereas in every other category men were more likely to use them as references.

Those with Blu-ray recorders who answered the above questions skipped to Q7.

Q6: Do you plan to buy a Blu-ray recorder? (Sample size=8,513)

Men were more interested in buying than women, and younger people slightly more likely than older people. People with digital televisions were also more likely to be thinking of buying, and the higher the spec, the more they were.

Q6SQ1: About how much is your budget for a Blu-ray recorder? (Sample size=4,846)

Q6SQ2: Which makers’ Blu-ray recorders are you interested in? (Sample size=4,846, multiple answer)

Q7: What genres of programs do you watch, plan to watch on Blu-ray recorder? (Sample size=5,177, multiple answer)

Q8: When buying, when you bought a Blu-ray recorder, which points will be, were important? (Sample size=5,177, multiple answer)

Interestingly, a higher percentage of women held almost every category more important, barring dual-layer support, picture quality functions, and Dubbing 10 features, although I wonder if in the last case men were more interested in it not supporting it?