世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1][part 2]

iShare recently reported on a survey conducted into the characteristics of global versus galapagos smartphone users. Here galapagos refers to the Galapagos Syndrome, how Japanese mobile phones have evolved to address Japanese market needs, yet are totally unsuited to the global market. Galapagos smartphones are the usually Android-based phones loaded with local must-haves like infra-red, one seg digital television, and Osaifu Keitai, contactless IC Chip-based payments.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 22nd of August 2011 736 smartphone-owning members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 65.1% of the sample were male, 11.3% in their twenties, 36.7% in their thirties, 37.4% in their forties, and 14.7% in their fifties.

It was interesting to see that people with global smartphones were more likely to use Twitter and Facebook; it would have been useful to select a couple of representative Japan-born equivalents (not sure what would be Twitter, but mixi is Facebook) to see if galapagos owners tend to remain in isolation.

Note that most of the questions below have separate columns for global smartphone and galapagos smartphone owners.

Research results

Q2: When buying your current smartphone, did you take interest in whether it was a global or galapagos smartphone? (Sample size=736)

	All	Male N=479	Female N=257	Global N=466	Galapagos N=270
Very much so	14.3%	13.6%	15.6%	8.6%	24.1%
To some extent	25.1%	25.1%	25.3%	19.1%	35.6%
Not at all	60.6%	61.4%	59.1%	72.3%	40.4%

Q3: Since starting using your smartphone have you felt let down by it? (Sample size=736)

	All	Male N=479	Female N=257	Global N=466	Galapagos N=270
Completely	2.9%	2.9%	2.7%	1.7%	4.8%
To some extent	13.3%	11.1%	17.5%	8.2%	22.2%
Not really	41.6%	39.7%	45.1%	38.8%	46.3%
Not at all	42.3%	46.3%	34.6%	51.3%	26.7%

Q4: What image do you have of global smartphones? (Sample size=736, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=479	Female N=257
Recognised throughout the world	45.1%	44.5%	46.3%
Refined	25.0%	25.7%	23.7%
Leading-edge	20.8%	23.8%	15.2%
Usable in very many situations	19.6%	17.5%	23.3%
Useful	18.1%	17.3%	19.5%
Has future prospects	17.4%	18.4%	15.6%
Looks good	17.5%	17.3%	17.9%
Individualistic	16.2%	15.9%	16.7%
Entertaining	14.1%	11.5%	19.1%
Can make one more effective at work	14.0%	12.7%	16.3%
Trustworthy	10.9%	11.9%	8.9%
Male-oriented	9.8%	9.0%	11.3%
Fashionable	8.6%	8.6%	8.6%
Smart	8.0%	7.3%	9.3%
Easy to love	6.5%	7.1%	5.4%
Charming	2.7%	2.5%	3.1%
Female-oriented	2.2%	2.7%	1.2%
Other	17.9%	20.3%	13.6%

Q5: What famous person has a global smartphone-like image? (Sample size=736, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=479	Female N=257
Ichiro Suzuki (baseball)	10.5%	10.9%	9.7%
Ken Watanabe (actor)	8.3%	7.7%	9.3%
Hidetoshi Nakata (ex-footballer)	7.6%	6.5%	9.7%
Hikaru Utada (singer)	6.5%	5.4%	8.6%
Takeshi Kaneshiro (actor)	3.3%	2.9%	3.9%
Kimiko Date-Krumm (tennis)	2.7%	2.9%	2.3%
Ai Tominaga (model, actress)	2.0%	1.5%	3.1%
Rinko Kikuchi (actress)	1.8%	1.7%	1.9%
Takeshi “Beat” Kitano (actor, director, etc)	1.0%	0.8%	1.2%
Chiaki Kuriyama (actress)	1.0%	1.3%	0.4%
Other	3.0%	3.8%	1.6%
No-one in particular	52.4%	54.7%	48.2%

Q6: What image do you have of galapagos smartphones? (Sample size=736, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=479	Female N=257
Useful	33.2%	30.7%	37.7%
Usable in very many situations	26.8%	26.3%	27.6%
Entertaining	20.0%	17.1%	25.3%
Easy to love	19.8%	15.7%	27.6%
Individualistic	15.8%	15.4%	16.3%
Female-oriented	14.7%	13.2%	17.5%
Trustworthy	12.9%	11.5%	15.6%
Leading-edge	12.1%	12.7%	10.9%
Can make one more effective at work	9.1%	7.5%	12.1%
Smart	8.7%	7.1%	11.7%
Has future prospects	6.9%	6.9%	7.0%
Refined	5.8%	5.8%	5.8%
Looks good	5.8%	4.8%	7.8%
Fashionable	3.7%	4.2%	2.7%
Male-oriented	2.2%	2.3%	1.9%
Charming	2.0%	1.7%	2.7%
Recognised throughout the world	1.8%	1.5%	2.3%
Other	19.4%	20.5%	17.5%

Q7: What famous person has a galapagos smartphone-like image? (Sample size=736, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=479	Female N=257
Shoko Nakagawa (Shoko-tan) (geek idol)	9.6%	8.8%	11.3%
Hiroyuki Miyasako (comedian)	3.7%	2.9%	5.1%
Shingo Fujimori (comedian)	3.3%	4.2%	1.6%
ATSUSHI (singer)	3.0%	3.1%	2.7%
Eiji Wentz (singer)	2.9%	2.5%	3.5%
Atsuko Maeda (singer)	2.7%	3.1%	1.9%
Kanako Yanagihara (comedian)	2.4%	1.7%	3.9%
Ai Haruna (new half)	2.2%	3.1%	0.4%
Tanoshingo (comedian)	1.5%	1.3%	1.9%
Tsubasa Masuwaka (model)	1.1%	0.2%	2.7%
Other	3.7%	3.5%	3.9%
No-one in particular	64.0%	65.6%	61.1%

Q8: How often do you use Twitter on your smartphone? (Sample size=736)

	All	Male N=479	Female N=257	Global N=466	Galapagos N=270
Every day	29.8%	27.3%	34.2%	32.6%	24.8%
Five or six days a week	4.5%	3.5%	6.2%	4.1%	5.2%
Three or four days a week	5.2%	4.6%	6.2%	6.0%	3.7%
One or two days a week	5.7%	5.2%	6.6%	5.8%	5.6%
Less than one day a week	18.8%	20.0%	16.3%	19.3%	17.8%
Don’t have an account	36.1%	39.2%	30.4%	32.2%	43.0%

Q9: How often do you use Facebook on your smartphone? (Sample size=736)

	All	Male N=479	Female N=257	Global N=466	Galapagos N=270
Every day	9.4%	10.4%	7.4%	10.7%	7.0%
Five or six days a week	1.8%	1.7%	1.9%	2.6%	0.4%
Three or four days a week	3.0%	2.5%	3.9%	3.6%	1.9%
One or two days a week	5.3%	5.8%	4.3%	6.2%	3.7%
Less than one day a week	18.2%	18.6%	17.5%	18.7%	17.4%
Don’t have an account	62.4%	61.0%	65.0%	58.2%	69.6%

[part 1][part 2]