世論 What Japan Thinks

With the release of the iPhone 4S in Japan, SoftBank are no longer the only mobile company offering Apple’s phone, but now au from KDDI have joined them, and this survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into mobile phone upgrades will not make pleasant reading for the SoftBank management.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 27th of October 2011 exactly 1,000 mobile phone (including smartphone) owning members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.6% of the sample were female, 1.2% in their teens, 11.3% in their twenties, 29.8% in their thirties, 28.0% in their forties, and 29.7% aged fifty or older.

I’m now getting much keener on a smartphone – perhaps the coming January I’ll finally make the leap?

Research results

Q1: Which mobile carrier do you use? If more than one, choose the main one. (Sample size=1,000)

NTT docomo	46.4%
au by KDDI	27.8%
SoftBank	22.8%
Willcom	2.9%
E-Mobile	0.1%

When those currently owning standard mobile phones were asked what kind of phone they would like to upgrade to, 37.8% wanted to stick with a bog standard mobile model versus 42.0% who wanted to switch to a smartphone. For current smartphone owners 58.1% wanted to buy a newer smartphone whereas 39.3% wanted to switch back to a standard mobile.

Finally, the 581 people from the above questions who wanted to get a new smartphone were asked the following.

Q2: Are you interested in getting an iPhone 4S? (Sample size=581)

Already bought, reserved from au	0.3%
Already bought, reserved from SoftBank	1.0%
Want to buy from au	20.3%
Want to buy from SoftBank	14.1%
Not decided which carrier, but want to buy	28.2%
Want to buy a different smartphone	36.0%