世論 What Japan Thinks

With only just over eight months before the analogue switch-off, and more importantly with the eco point digital TV cashback to be halved at the end of the month, the 16th regular survey by goo Research into terrestrial digital television broadcasts, reported on by japan.internet.com, found that finally the number of people digital-ready surpassed analogue equipment owners – see the 15th regular survey for the previous data.

Demographics

On the 25th of October 2010 1,093 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private intenet-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 22.0% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 11.2% aged sixty or older.

Talking of the halving of eco points, I really, really have to buy two tellies, one for the in-laws, and one for ourselves. For a 32 inch, the eco point cashback is dropping from 12,000 yen to 6,000 yen, so we have to be quick…

I also heard at the weekend when the cable company came round for their regular check-up of our reception that the government are very likely to request that all cable companies continue to supply an analogue feed after the switch-off.
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The title indicates a perhaps not too surprising result from a recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into 3D contents.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 26th of October 2010 1,067 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 20.3% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 16.1% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

Last month Toshiba announced that they would be releasing a no-glasses 3D television at the end of the year, and just this week Sharp made a similar announcement. However, the current state of the art is that only up to about a 20 inch television works, and there is only a relatively narrow sweet spot for getting the 3D effect. However, their strategy may be less promoting their new hardware and more trying to cast doubt in the consumer’s mind about the merits of with-glasses 3D, an area where both companies are losing out badly to their Japanese and Korean rivals.
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A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at mobile video, their 65th survey in their regular mobile research series.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of October 2010, 1,036 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a mobile internet-based questionnaire, thus everyone was a mobile user. 57.6% of the sample were female, 3.6% in their teens, 25.8% in their twenties, 35.2% in their thirties, 25.6% in their forties, and 9.8% aged fifty or older.

My mobile phone is capable of movie playback, but I don’t believe I’ve ever watched any video, not even playback of video shot with the mobile’s camera.
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This is the first time iShare has featured on Silly Sunday, but this quick look at what Autumn 2010 3D movies people most want to see is just to tie in with today’s goo Ranking survey on 3D game series remakes.

Demographics

Between the 30th of September and 5th of October 2010 483 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.2% of the sample were male, 32.3% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, and 34.4% in their forties.

Regular readers will know that I am not enamoured by 3D movies, so I was pleased to read that Harry Potter 7.1 will be 2D only, in the UK at least, due to the 3D remastering taking longer than planned to perform. Here’s hoping that they don’t get it finished in time for the Japanese release too!

Oh, and yes, the fifth movie Atashin-chi does have a stupidly-long title; that often seems to happen with cartoons over here.
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The sixth regular survey into consumer games machines by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com also revealed that almost all portable games machine users used them at home.

Demographics

Over the 16th and 17th of September 2010 1,099 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.7% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, and 15.7% in their fifties, and 11.7% aged sixty or older.

I read today about Panasonic’s re-entry into the games market through a subsiduary names Panasonic Cloud Entertainment, or PCENT for short (read as P-CENT?) with the too-ugly-to-be-retro The Jungle.

Note that Panasonic have never actually been away from the games market, as they’ve done a lot of system software for all the recent Nintendo devices, but PCENT seem to have no relation to the Nintendo-related work.

Note that the survey for some reason reported the first two sets of data as percentages but the third as raw numbers.
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Here’s a quick filler survey from iShare, looking at wind instruments.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 27th of July 2010 474 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were male, 33.1% in their twenties, 30.4% in their thirties, and 36.5% in their forties.

I always thought the clarinet was a cool instrument for women, but for me, there was no real wind instrument I wanted to learn, although the shape of a French horn was and still is alluring!

Not surprisingly, the sax comes out tops in attractiveness for women, but men prefer the flute. I wonder if that figure includes women who are good with the shakuhachi (Japanese flute)? I’ll leave you to Google that one.
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In the fifteenth regular monthly survey by goo Research into terrestrial digital television broadcasts, japan.internet.com reported that very nearly three in four are now terrestrial digital ready, whether it be with television or video equipment.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 28th of July 2010 1,085 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 11.8% agerd sixty or over.

The switchover to digital is now less than a year away, with the 24th of July 2011 being the analogue switch-off day. Although the news last weekend reported that television and other device sales over the summer softened, affecting the GDP adversely, with the eco point system due to end in December, I predict that the autumn and early winter will see the sales of televisions pick up again as both deadlines approach.

I need to buy two televisions; one for home, and one with a built-in hard disk recorder for the parents-in-law as they have been muttering that a tuner box will not be enough.
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A recent survey from goo Research into mobile phones and video, their 62nd monthly survey, reported on by japan.internet.com produced some interesting results, although I’m not sure of how to interpret them as there is an inbuilt bias in this particular type of goo survey.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 22nd of July 2010 1,012 members of the goo Research mobile monitor group completed a private mobile phone internet-based questionnaire. 55.0% of the sample were female, 3.4% in their teens, 27.4% in their twenties, 35.8% in their thirties, 25.1% in their forties, and 8.4% aged fifty or older.

Mobile phone-based surveys tend to attract heavy users of mobile phones, and heavy users tend to be frequent phone upgraders, so tend to be a bit more ahead of the curve hardware-wise, as perhaps Q2 reveals.

I also strongly suspect that there is a relationship between having an iPhone and watching more video more frequently, be it pre-recorded or streamed from YouTube, but unfortunately there is no data on this.
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goo Ranking recently took a look at a subject that was tempted to entitle “Karaoke FAIL”, but it didn’t quite fit, and anyway I have another FAIL coming later this evening. So, the survey was into what leaves people feeling down at karaoke.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23rd of June 2010 1,137 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 65.1% of the sample were female, 8.0% in their teens, 20.4% in their twenties, 31.2% in their thirties, 23.9% in their forties, 9.2% in their fifties, and 7.2 aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I’ve not been to karaoke for ages and ages, but I’ve done my fair share of ruining the mood for others, judging by the list. Fiddling with the sound effects is one of my favourites, and in order to try to disguise my total inability to carry a tune I’ve occasionally done the speaking instead of singing.

Photo from gullevek on flickr.
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With 3D television starting to get off the ground in Japan, with a few particular programs being broadcast in 3D, goo Research took a look at television in general, but the report from japan.internet.com chose to focus on the 3D aspect.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 12th of July 2010 1,095 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties 16.4% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.4% aged sixty or older.

Although I’ve been to two 3D movies, I’ve not actually watched 3D television. I was in a store with a pair of 3D glasses set up, but they had some really rather uninteresting scenery sample playing, so I didn’t bother having a peek through the specs. I’ve no desire to buy despite manufacturers strongly pushing the new technology.
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