More Japanese have modems than monitors!
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This time it is goo Research taking a look at an interesting facet of Japanese life, in this report by japan.internet.com into cabling and wiring.
Demographics
Between the 4th and 9th of March 2011 1,088 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.9% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 15.7% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.
I haven’t a clue why over half the sample have modems; perhaps people are counting their ADSL adapters as both routers and modems? Only 45.0% having a PC monitor is a bit confusing, as another survey this month indicated that 58.5% had desktop computers – do the remaining 13.5% either have an all-in-one computer or are they feeding the output through their television?
Research results
Q1: At home, which of the following computers, peripherals, audio-visual equipment and appliances do you have? (Sample size=1,088, multiple answer)
Votes Percentage PC 1074 98.7% Refrigerator 1064 97.8% Microwave oven 1036 95.2% Television 1030 94.7% Free-standing lighting 987 90.7% Rice cooker 972 89.3% Fixed-line telephone 905 83.2% Printer 875 80.4% Video recording device 748 68.8% Electric kettle, pot 618 56.8% Router 617 56.7% Fax 593 54.5% Games console 578 53.1% Modem 565 51.9% Electric kotatsu 523 48.1% Heated carpet 523 48.1% PC monitor 490 45.0% Stereo system 431 39.6% Computer speakers 399 36.7% Tuner 264 24.3% Computer-use microphone 217 19.9% Other 18 1.7% Nothing at all 0 0.0% Q2: Do you think your cabling at home is neat and tidy? (Sample size=1,088)
Yes, tidy 39.2% No, not tidy (to SQ) 47.4% Can’t say 13.4% Q2SQ: Which cabling do you want to tidy up? (Sample size=516, multiple answer)
Votes Percentage PC 357 69.2% Television 221 42.8% Router 203 39.3% Printer 174 33.7% Modem 173 33.5% Video recording device 155 30.0% Games console 119 23.1% PC monitor 113 21.9% Fixed-line telephone 81 15.7% Computer speakers 77 14.9% Fax 51 9.9% Tuner 48 9.3% Stereo system 45 8.7% Electric kotatsu 39 7.6% Rice cooker 35 6.8% Microwave oven 33 6.4% Heated carpet 28 5.4% Refrigerator 25 4.8% Computer-use microphone 24 4.7% Electric kettle, pot 21 4.1% Free-standing lighting 11 2.1% Other 0 0.0% None of them 17 3.3%
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The ADSL router is a modem too. It’s even called “modem” rather than “router” in Swedish. And most laptops still come with a modem built in, whether you want it or not.
And my guess is a combination of all-in-one pc:s – they seem to have sold quite well as combination TV and computer, especially for small one-person households – and the tendency for people to think of all the components as “my computer”. So, some people who answer they have a desktop computer do not count the monitor separately, and answer if they have another monitor apart from the one that’s part of the computer.
Something that I’ve done, and which seems popular now-a-days is using digital TVs as your PC monitor. My TV has multiple HDMI slots as well as a couple of older style monitor inputs as well as a bunch of the good old RCA Red White and Yellow inputs. HDMI apparently has the ability to also transfer sound, so you don’t even need to buy computer speakers anymore. With that said, this kind of setup is advantageous in that you don’t need nearly as much wiring as in the past. If you hook up a wireless keyboard, then all you need is a power cable for your PC and TV and one HDMI cable from your computer to your TV and you’re golden.
It’s crazy to think that most power outlets in Japan are only two prong. With all of these extra wires, you’d think that a little extra protection wouldn’t hurt!
@Janne
I think it’s called a modem here too.
In my previous apartment, 1 device was labelled as a “VDSL modem” for the Hikari B-Flets and that plugged into another box that was a router among other things. (no matter if it actually was a modem technically, rather than they called it a modem for people to –hopefully– better understand what it was for.
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I wonder about the kotatsu and hot carpet items. They both had 523 votes in Q1. It would be interesting to see how many of those 523 were also part of the other 523. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were all the same people.