Mobile voice calling relatively rare in Japan
Advertisement
Despite SoftBank, WillCom and E-Mobile offering free voice calls to other customers of the same company (given certain conditions and/or payments), and au and docomo offering free calls amongst families, this recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Point On Research into mobile phone voice calls shows not too much take-up of such offers.
Demographics
On the 18th of January 2009 1,000 mobile phone users from the Point On monitor group completed a private internet-based survey, although there is no information to say if they use mobile internet or computer-based. The sample was exactly 50.0% male, 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.
I very rarely make voice calls – even several times a month is too high a frequency for me. I only ever call my wife, and even though she can call me for free, we just use email as it’s far more practical especially since my commute is 90% inside a train.
Research results
Q1: About how often do you usually make or receive voice calls on your mobile phone? (Sample size=1,000)
Five or more times a day 5.7% One to four times a day 28.9% Several times a week 34.1% Several times a month 24.6% Several times a year 6.7% Q2: Do you more often make voice calls or receive voice calls on your mobile phone? (Sample size=1,000)
Make calls more often 17.3% Receive calls more often 48.8% About the same 30.9% Don’t know 3.0% From the sample, 174 people did not have a fixed line phone at home.
Q3: At home, do you more often use your fixed line or your mobile phone? (Sample size=826)
Mostly use fixed line phone 15.1% Mostly use mobile phone 45.3% Use fixed line phone for outgoing calls only 14.5% Use both about the same 19.1% Other 5.9% Note that using the fixed line for outgoing calls only implies that these people give out only their mobile number to other people.
Subscribe to feed
When I talk with Japanese people, our conversation often drifts to keitai culture vs american phone culture. I’m shocked they don’t have computer mail accounts; they don’t get how I can call a friend across the country and talk for two hours without worrying about steep cell fees.