世論 What Japan Thinks

This month’s regular look at mobile phone upgrade needs (the 46th time it has been conducted) by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com had interesting results regarding two big recent developments in mobile phones, smartphones and high pixel-count cameras.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 22nd of May 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private intenet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were female, 2.0% in their teens, 16.7% in their twenties, 33.7% in their thirties, 28.4% in their forties, and 19.2% aged fifty or older.

This summer’s models brings cameras with up to 10 million pixels, which is getting to be overkill, as packing more pixels more densely actually can give worse results as one starts to get interference problems. In addition, without a decent lens you’re not going to be taking very good photographs anyway, and looking at the camera on the linked web page, the big round thing looks just for show as there is another tiny circle inside which looks to be the business end.

The number interested in smartphones is pretty low, but I suspect that they have an image of being foreign market-designed phones that feature few of the essential Japanese functions such as emoji, One-seg television, and smartcards. Up to now only Sharp with their SH-04 and related models have produced that sort of smartphone, but with many domestic manufacturers rushing to Google’s Android, expect to see many fully-functioned domestic smartphones this winter or next spring, assuming the carriers don’t request to the manufacturers that they avoid too much openness.

Research results

Q1: Which mobile carrier do you use? If more than one, choose the main one. (Sample size=1,000)

NTT docomo	49.0%
au by KDDI	27.8%
SoftBank	18.5%
Willcom	4.1%
E-Mobile	0.6%

Q2: Select which of the following are important when upgrading your mobile phone. (Sample size=1,000, multiple answer)

Handset price	69.8%
Design	64.6%
Usability	36.1%
Size	34.3%
Weight	29.3%
Handset type (clamshell, slider, etc)	28.1%
Service provider, carrier	26.6%
Display	26.3%
Voice call costs	25.4%
Camera spec, functions	24.1%
Additional functions (One seg, GPS, etc)	23.3%
Maker, brand	19.4%
Battery life	17.7%
Data transmission costs	16.7%
Supported services	14.0%
Ease of connecting	12.3%
Character entry functions	11.9%
Internal memory size	10.9%
Voice quality	9.9%
Transmission speed	8.4%
Other	2.0%
None in particular	1.1%

Q3: What resolution of mobile phone camera do you need? (Sample size=1,000)

Over 8 megapixels	10.0%
5 to 8 megapixels	24.0%
3 to 5 megapixels	34.6%
2 megapixels	15.9%
1 megapixels	5.2%
0.31 megapixels	0.7%
0.11 megapixels	1.0%
Don’t need a camera	8.6%

Q4: Would you like to upgrade to a smartphone in the future? (Sample size=1,000)

Already using one	4.1%
Want to upgrade to one	7.8%
Don’t want to upgrade to one	25.1%
Can’t say either way	35.7%
Don’t know what a smartphone is	27.3%