世論 What Japan Thinks

This recent survey from iShare into 2009 usage patterns for mobile phones revealed a few surprises for me, not least that One Seg terrestrial digital broadcast decoding and music playing features were quite low on the lists of both used and useful features.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 7th of December 2009 541 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.6% of the sample were male, 35.1% in their twenties, 28.7% in their thirties, and 36.2% in their forties.

In Q1 I’m really surprised to see over 15% of the iShare demographic does not have a mobile phone. As far as I am aware, and refering to other survey companies like goo Research and MyVoice, penetration is around 95%, so I’m not really sure what makes iShare so low. Are people being too smart for their own good and answering no because they have a PHS-based device, or is there a lot of data card and 3G dongle users?

As I’m married, my main voice and email partner was of course my better half. The most used and most useful feature was of course email. Answering for my wife, she probably exchanges more email in total with friends, although counting them individually I’m probably her main mail contact. As for voice, her mother wins by 1.6 kilometres.

Research results

Q1: Do you have a mobile phone? (Sample size=541)

	All	Male N=306	Female N=235
Yes (to SQs)	84.3%	83.3%	85.5%
No	15.7%	16.7%	14.5%

Q1SQ1: This year, which mobile phone feature did you use the most? (Sample size=456)

	All	Male N=255	Female N=201
Email	52.0%	51.8%	52.2%
Internet	18.0%	18.4%	17.4%
Voice calling	13.8%	16.5%	10.4%
Alarm clock	9.0%	5.9%	12.9%
Applications	2.0%	2.0%	2.0%
Camera	1.3%	0.8%	2.0%
Electronic cash	1.3%	1.6%	1.0%
Music playback	0.9%	0.8%	1.0%
Video playback	0.4%	0.8%	0.0%
One seg television	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%
Other	1.1%	1.2%	1.0%

Q1SQ2: This year, which mobile phone feature was the most useful? (Sample size=456)

	All	Male N=255	Female N=201
Email	34.0%	31.4%	37.3%
Internet	20.8%	22.7%	18.4%
Alarm clock	9.9%	9.0%	10.9%
Voice calling	7.0%	7.8%	6.0%
Camera	6.8%	6.7%	7.0%
Electronic cash	6.8%	8.2%	5.0%
Applications	3.7%	3.1%	4.5%
One seg television	3.5%	2.4%	5.0%
Music playback	2.0%	2.0%	2.0%
Video playback	1.3%	1.2%	1.5%
Other	4.2%	5.5%	2.5%

Q1SQ3: This year, whom did you talk to the most on your mobile phone? (Sample size=456)

	All	Male N=255	Female N=201
Partner	34.6%	36.1%	32.8%
Other family members	28.7%	22.0%	37.3%
Friends	17.3%	18.4%	15.9%
Customers	5.9%	7.5%	4.0%
Work, school	5.5%	7.1%	3.5%
Colleagues	3.1%	4.7%	1.0%
Boss	0.7%	1.2%	0.0%
Other	1.3%	1.2%	1.5%
Didn’t talk to anyone	2.9%	2.0%	4.0%

Q1SQ4: This year, whom did you exchange email with the most on your mobile phone? (Sample size=456)

	All	Male N=255	Female N=201
Friends	41.9%	37.6%	47.3%
Partner	37.3%	41.6%	31.8%
Other family members	11.0%	7.5%	15.4%
Work, school	2.2%	3.5%	0.5%
Customers	1.8%	1.6%	2.0%
Colleagues	1.3%	1.6%	1.0%
Boss	0.4%	0.8%	0.0%
Other	1.3%	2.0%	0.5%
Didn’t exchange email with anyone	2.9%	3.9%	1.5%