Too many autumn and winter models, many feel
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Looking at the alphabet soup of new models for this autumn and winter from docomo and SoftBank, one could be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed, with about 20 new handset each. Seeing how widespread this feeling was was one of the questions asked in the 49th regular upgrade needs survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com.
Demographics
Between the 17th and 20th of November 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone using members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 1.3% in their teens, 14.3% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, 27.7% in their forties, and 23.4% aged fifty or older.
I’m overwhelmed by the number, especially as they all have roughly the same price and feature overload. If there was an entry-level phone with no One Seg television, a low-end camera, and no touch screen, flashing lights and other gimmics, I’m sure it could sell.
I’ve also got no intention to buy this season, partially as I’m waiting to see how well the Japanese manufacturers tackle making Android phones for the domestic market, and partially because I spent my toy budget on a netbook.
Research results
Q1: Which carrier are you currently using? (Sample size=1,000)
NTT docomo 49.2% au by KDDI 27.9% SoftBank 19.0% Willcom 3.9% e-Mobile 0.0% Q2: How long have you been using your current mobile phone? (Sample size=1,000)
Less than a month ago 1.6% Less than three months ago 4.9% Less than six months ago 7.3% Less than a year ago 15.8% Less than two years ago 33.1% Two or more years ago 36.4% Don’t remember 0.9% Q3: Do you plan to use MNP, Mobile Number Portability, to change mobile phone carriers while keeping the same telephone number? (Sample size=1,000)
Definite plan to do so 1.6% No definite plan to do so, but might depending on circumstance 40.3% No plan to do so 58.2% Q4: Docomo, au and SoftBank have each annouced over 20 new handset in their autumn and winter ranges. How do you feel about the number of new handsets? (Sample size=1,000)
Too many 27.3% Many 28.6% About right 15.5% Few 2.0% Too few 0.2% Can’t really say 26.4%
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