Smartphones overtake netbooks in Japan
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The sixth regular survey by goo Research into mobile devices, reported on by japan.internet.com, produced evidence that compared to the fourth time the survey was conducted smartphones have got more popular.
Demographics
Between the 28th of June and the 1st of July 2010 1,090 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, and 27.6% aged fifty or older.
I wonder next time they do the survey if the tablet PC category will see a jump due to iPad purchasers? Furthermore, I also expect smartphones to jump due to the iPhone 4′s release, assuming there isn’t a recall.
My interest in smartphones has waned again – I’m seeing a huge number of new models coming out in the UK and US with various packages of hundreds of minutes and hundreds of megabytes of data for under 3,000 yen, yet here I pay about the same for 30 minutes or a megabyte…
Research results
Q1: Other than an ordinary mobile phone, which of the following mobile devices do you have? (Sample size=1,090, multiple answer)
Votes Percentage Nintendo DS 486 44.6% Ordinary laptop computer 275 25.2% PlayStation Portable 210 19.3% Smartphone 92 8.4% Netbook (to SQ1) 71 6.5% PDA 18 1.7% PND 13 1.2% Tablet PC 12 1.1% MID, UMPC 5 0.5% Other 2 0.2% None of the above 383 35.1% Q1SQ1: What makers’ netbooks do you have? (Sample size=71, multiple answer)
Votes Percentage ASUSTek Eee PC 16 22.5% Acer Aspire One 14 19.7% NEC LaVie Light 10 14.1% Lenovo IdeaPad 7 9.9% Dell Inspirion mini 7 9.9% Toshiba dynabook UX 6 8.5% Fujitsu FMV Biblo Loox M 4 5.6% Hewlett-Packard mini 3 4.2% MSI Wind Netbook 3 4.2% Onkyo SOTEC CI 1 1.4% Sony Vaio W 1 1.4% Espon Direct Endeavor Na01 mini 0 0.0% Mouse Computers LuvBook U, G 0 0.0% Other 8 11.3% Don’t know 4 5.6% Q2: What mobile device would you like to carry with you? (Sample size=1,090)
Smartphone 37.8% Netbook 13.9% Ordinary laptop computer 6.1% MID, UMPC 0.4% Other 0.4% Mobile phone is enough 37.6% Not even a mobile phone 3.8%
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I’m pretty sure a lot of the increases in Smartphone usage is due to the Sony Ericsson Xperia (X10) from April onwards.
As we all know, DoCoMo has the biggest subscriber base and Xperia is DoCoMo’s new flagship smartphone is actually getting much needed marketing attention.
Only the iPhone and Xperia really got much marketing attention in Japan, in terms of smartphones
but, personally, I think many DoCoMo users were unwilling to switch to switch carriers to Softbank, reportedly the worst carrier in terms of network strength/capacity/coverage.
Sure, I lot of users did switch to Softbank just to get the iPhone, but heavily marketed smartphones on other networks now mean that users can stick with their existing carriers, not break their family discount packages, and get a trendy new smartphone.
Xperia was the first major one not on Softbank, but is being followed up by many other products on all three major carriers that could possibly appeal to more than an enterprise or gadget-centric users.
You used to be able to see lots of iPhones everywhere, now you see iPhones and Xperia everywhere here. I look forward to a near-future where we can see a wide variety of “smartphones” and similar devices enjoyed on all carriers and across market segments.