世論 What Japan Thinks

Here is the second of this week’s smartphone surveys, this time it is iShare reporting on smartphones, voice calls and VoIP, where VoIP is Voice over Internet Protocol, in other words calls made computer to computer using an internet connection rather than phone to phone dialed calls. The best-known VoIP packages are probably Skype and Google Talk.

Demographics

Over the 3rd and 4th of October 2011 1,209 smartphone using members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were female, 29.4% in their twenties, and 70.6% in their thirties.

Voice call costs don’t bother me as the only person I phone is my wife, and I get free calls to her. Anyway, I don’t phone her much anyway, as we almost exclusively email.

Research results

Q8: Have you ever, because of worries about voice call costs, used email or other methods to get in touch? (Sample size=1,209)

	All	Male N=602	Female N=607
Yes, frequently	42.3%	38.9%	45.6%
Yes, sometimes	38.7%	37.2%	40.2%
No, never	19.0%	23.9%	14.2%

Q9: Have you ever, because of worries about voice call costs, finished up a call quickly? (Sample size=1,209)

	All	Male N=602	Female N=607
Yes, frequently	23.7%	25.4%	22.1%
Yes, sometimes	46,2%	42.4%	49.9%
No, never	30.1%	32.2%	28.0%

Q10: What tricks do you have for reducing your voice call costs? (Sample size=1,209, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=602	Female N=607
Use email instead of voice	65.6%	59.1%	72.0%
Use free minutes offered by the carrier	40.6%	40.2%	41.0%
Use a VoIP application (Skype, etc) on my smartphone	26.9%	26.7%	27.0%
Select a plan that matching my preferred calling time, people I call	21.5%	20.4%	22.6%
Use the fixed line phone at home	17.8%	14.5%	21.1%
Use social media (Twitter, SNS, etc) instead of voice	11.2%	12.3%	10.2%
Other	1.2%	2.5%	3.9%
Don’t use any tricks	13.2%	17.6%	8.9%

Q11: At what sorts of times do you want to call rather than send email? (Sample size=1,209, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=602	Female N=607
When exchanging mail gets bothersome	65.8%	62.3%	69.2%
When I want to directly express my feelings	41.2%	38.0%	44.3%
When I want to discuss matters	31.6%	24.8%	38.4%
When I want to moan	19.2%	11.5%	26.9%
When I’m lonely and want to talk	9.3%	5.1%	13.3%
When I want to get more friendly	7.3%	7.8%	6.8%
When I want to make up after a row	7.2%	6.5%	7.9%
Other	7.6%	8.8%	6.4%

Q12: If voice call charges were cheaper than they are now, would you want to talk more on the phone? (Sample size=1,209)

	All	Male N=602	Female N=607
Very much more	41.8%	40.4%	43.2%
A little more	38.5%	35.4%	41.7%
Not at all	19.7%	24.3%	15.2%

Q13: Have you got a VoIP app (Skype, Viber, 050 plus, etc) installed on your smartphone? (Sample size=1,209)

	All	Male N=602	Female N=607
Yes, and use them frequently (to SQs)	11.7%	12.5%	11.0%
Yes, and use them occasionally (to SQs)	28.8%	29.4%	28.2%
Yes, but never use them	19.7%	18.8%	20.6%
Yes, but uninstalled them	2.7%	3.0%	2.5%
No, never installed any	37.1%	36.4%	37.7%

Q13SQ1: How many VoIP apps do you currently have installed on your smartphone? (Sample size=490)

	All	Male N=252	Female N=238
One	57.8%	59.1%	56.3%
Two	26.9%	25.0%	29.0%
Three	9.0%	9.1%	8.8%
Four	2.2%	2.4%	2.1%
Five or more	4.1%	4.4%	3.8%

Q13SQ2: Since installing these VoIP apps has your number or length of calls increased? (Sample size=490)

	All	Male N=252	Female N=238
Very much so	17.1%	15.5%	18.9%
To some extent	37.8%	40.1%	35.3%
Not changed	45.1%	44.4%	45.8%