世論 What Japan Thinks

goo Research, in a survey reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at mobile phones, with this report focusing on the usage of the address books within mobile phones.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 24th of August 2009 1,070 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I haven’t backed up my mobile’s phone book for at least a year, I think, but then again I have so few entries that last year’s backup is probably still valid!

I was suprised to see that only about 5% use the shortcut dial feature, less than those typing numbers in directly. As far as I know most mobile phones have a feature where if you type in the address book index (one or two digits are OK, I think) then press the dial button it dials that entry, which is handy for me as my wife is registered in slot one.

Research results

First of all, 998 people, or 93.3% of the sample, had mobile phones. They were asked the following questions.

Q1: When exchanging mobile numbers, what methods do you use? (Sample size=998, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Use infrared	595	59.6%
Ask for other person’s phone number then call it	569	57.0%
Tell other person my number and have her call me	505	50.6%
Pass a memo	295	29.6%
Pass business cards	92	9.2%
Use IC chip transmission feature	15	1.5%
Use an on-screen QR code	12	1.2%
Use a QR code from a business card	5	0.5%
Other	7	0.7%

Q2: When making a mobile phone call, what methods do you mainly use to dial the number? (Sample size=998, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Search address book	838	84.0%
Refer to incoming call history	780	78.2%
Refer to outgoing call history	668	66.9%
Directly enter telephone number	53	5.3%
Use shortcut dial feature	51	5.1%
Use one-touch dial feature	47	4.7%
Refer to frequently called number history	18	1.8%
Other	0	0.0%

Q3: What methods do you use to back up your mobile phone address book? (Sample size=998, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Back up to memory card	336	33.7%
Use service provider’s online backup service	128	12.8%
Use PC-based backup software	124	12.4%
Write down numbers in physical address book, etc	74	7.4%
Ask mobile phone shop staff to back up for me	48	4.8%
Back up to SIM card	43	4.3%
Back up to old mobile phone	38	3.8%
Attach address book to email and send to PC	29	2.9%
Use internet-based third-party backup service	24	2.4%
Other	2	0.2%
Don’t back up my address book	438	43.9%