世論 What Japan Thinks

Although all electronic book readers in Japan have died a death since the very first one in 1990, with even big manufacturer-backed models like Panasonic’s Sigma Book and Sony’s Librie failing, Amazon’s Kindle and even Sony’s western models are flying off the shelves. To see if there are any signs of life in the Japan market, iBridge Research Plus looked at electronic book readers in a report published on japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 28th of December 2009 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.0% of the sample were male, 11.7% in their twenties, 31.3% in their thirties, 31.0% in their forties, 16.7% in their fifties, and 9.3% in their sixties.

For me too the current price of around 20,000 to 30,000 yen for the average reader is a bit much, especially as most companies haven’t got the interface quite right yet, judging from the reviews. As to why people are setting their price tag so low, perhaps it has something to do with the already-established user-base for mobile phone-based reading material?

Research results

Q1: Do you know what electronic books are? (Sample size=300)

Know it well (to SQs)	16.7%
Know something about it (to SQs)	55.3%
Just heard the term	23.3%
Never heard of it	4.7%

Q1SQ1: Have you heard about the Amazon Kindle going on sale in the USA? (Sample size=216)

Yes	24.1%
No	75.9%

Q1SQ2: What do you think is an appropriate price for a dedicated electronic book reading device? (Sample size=216)

Under 5,000 yen	45.4%
5,000 to 9,999 yen	36.1%
10,000 to 14,999 yen	12.0%
15,000 to 19,999 yen	4.6%
20,000 to 24,999 yen	0.9%
25,000 to 29,999 yen	0.5%
30,000 yen or more	0.5%