世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s one of these subjects for a survey that make me scratch my head and wonder why they really asked this. This time japan.internet.com reported on a survey by goo Research into broken digital cameras.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 27th of January 2009 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

As all I have is a cheap and cheerful compact digitial camera I’ve never thought that it might have the facility for a firmware upgrade; given the rate of model turnover buying a new camera is the only way of getting a new version! I’ve of course heard about upgrades for digital SLRs, but let me check the support web site for my camera – oh, they do have firmware upgrades even for the compact cameras! It doesn’t tell you what they do, however…

Research results

Q1: Do you have your own personal use digital camera? (Sample size=1,083)

Yes (to SQ1)	74.0%
No, but borrow from family members (to SQ1, to SQ3)	10.6%
No	15.3%

Q1SQ1: Have you ever had a digital camera break down? (Sample size=917)

Yes (to SQ2)	23.0%
No	74.5%
Can’t remember	2.5%

Q1SQ2: What was (were) the cause of it breaking down? (Sample size=211, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Dropped it	52	24.6%
Dead straight out of the box	32	15.2%
Buttons wore out	16	7.6%
Smashed into a wall	12	5.7%
Dropped into water	8	3.8%
Software, firmware problem	8	3.8%
Spilt liquid over it	2	0.9%
Don’t know what was the cause	87	41.2%
Other	15	7.1%

Q1SQ3: Have you ever updated the firmware on your digital camera? (Sample size=917)

Yes	9.7%
No (to SQ4)	77.1%
Don’t know (to SQ4)	13.2%

Q1SQ4: Why haven’t you ever updated the firmware on your digital camera? (Sample size=828, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Don’t know what firmware is	399	48.2%
Didn’t know you could update firmware	226	27.3%
No new firmware has been released	79	9.5%
Too much bother	67	8.1%
Don’t have the required information on updates	66	8.0%
Other	14	1.7%

It’s not clear if “didn’t know you could update firmware” means generally or for one’s own model in particular, and there is no “never felt the need to look for an update” answer, which is the closest to my own situation.