世論 What Japan Thinks

Mobile Marketing Data Laboratory recently conducted another survey that proved interesting despite the rather plain title of The use of smartphone camera apps.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 16th of November 2013 558 members of the MMD Labo monitor group completed a private internet-based questionniare. The respondents were aged 18 or older, and all were smartphone users, but further statistics were not presented.

The reason I mentioned the silent camera apps being worrying in the headline is that although I’m sure it is only intended for not scaring pets or babies, hardly a week in Japan seems to go by without a public servant being arrested for upskirt photos, so a silent camera is one way to get around the mandatory shutter noise that all phones in Japan must make.
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This survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, perhaps gives one a hint as to how addicted people are to their smartphones, as this look at smartphone recharging finds many burning through their batteries.

Demographics

Between the 28th of October and the 3rd of November 2013 1,082 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.8% of the sample were male, 13.8% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 17.2% in their forties, 14.8% in their fifties, and 17.5% aged sixty or older.

I manage to get three or four days out of a charge of my smartphone, but that is due to me only using it as an alarm clock, for occasional email and a couple of minutes of surfing per day.
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Mobile Marketing Data Laboratory recently published a very interesting “fixed point” survey regarding mobile handset purchasing. I’m not sure exactly what a “fixed point” is; it might be referring to this being a regular survey?

Demographics

Between the 11th and 15th of October 2013 995 members of the MMD Labo monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All of them had purchased a mobile phone between April and September of 2013, and all were aged over 18 but under 65 years old, but no further demographics were given.

Note that regarding Q1SQ2, docomo only sells the newer iPhones 5s and 5c, yet even though they only came out on the 20th of September, they made up nearly 20% of docomo’s sales in just 5% of the half-year measured! They also made up nearly 25% of SoftBank’s sales, but that could be explained by people holding off upgrading until the new model came out.
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Following on from a look at Apple iPad Air and mini Retina Display devices, Mobile Marketing Data Laboratories followed up with the Microsoft Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2.

Demographics

Over the 25th and 26th of October 2013 2,204 members of the MMD Labo monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All of the sameple were over the age of 15, but further demographics were not forthcoming.

Nokia have also recently announced a Surface 2 tablet (non-Pro means it runs on ARM, so doesn’t support legacy Windows programs) that sounds rather good, but the price is still borderline for my wallet once my netbook finally expires, especially once the keyboard price is factored in. I’ve also recently converted by netbook to Linux, so if it did expire, I’d probably be in the market for a (second-hand?) low-end net/notebook to bung Linux on.

Back to the survey, I was surprised to see that the desire to purchase was only 50% or less than the desire to buy a new iPad. I’d have thought the Surface has a much more business-oriented image but not quite good enough yet to replace a MacBook or an Ultrabook.
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With the official launch of the new iPad and iPad mini next month, Mobile Marketing Data Labo took a look at views on the iPad Air and iPad mini Retina Display.

Demographics

Over the 23rd and 24th of October 2013 4,414 members of the MMD monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was of both sexes over the age of fifteen, but no further information was provided.

I won’t be buying an iPad, as I do not like Apple devices. I’ve used one at work recently, but after coming from Android I find it too restrictive, and only one button takes a bit of time to get used to. Furthermore, from a developer perspective, signing issues are a pain and their IDE, XCode, is not intuitive at all.

Note that in Q3SQ and Q4SQ, docomo have not announced whether or not they will be selling the new iPads, but MMD Labo asked the question anyway.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on goo Research’s ninth regular survey into electronic publications, with the article choosing to highlight the negative side, why people don’t read ebooks.

Demographics

Between the 30th of September and the 3rd of October 2013 1,087 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were male, 13.8% in their teens, 15.5% in their twenties, 21.8% in their thirties, 17.2% in their forties, 19.6% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I’ve got a bunch of free ebooks of Japanese classic novels downloaded from Google Play, but I’m yet to start reading them… I’ve always wanted to get an e-paper reader, although I don’t really know how much I’d actually use it.
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japan.internet.com reported on a subject that I know more about than I can tell you, that of smartphone-ready home appliances, in a survey conducted by goo Research.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 25th of September 2013 1,082 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private intenet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were male, 13.7% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 17.1% in their forties, 14.6% in their fifties, and 17.1% aged sixty or older.

Here’s a demo from last year’s CEATEC (Japan’s biggest consumer electronics show) where Sharp showed off their take on a Roomba.

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goo Research took a look at 3D printer awareness and found that although the technology was well-known, few people had physically interacted with one.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 8th of September 2013 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were male, 13.7% in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 17.4% in their forties, 14.8% in their fifties, and 17.2% aged sixty or older.

There has been talk of getting a 3D printer in the office for no particular reason other than perhaps inspiration to knock up something or other. However, just today I heard a colleague mention he has used one, but merely to produce a small box with a cable cut-out to hold an Arduino board.

For your entertainment, here are three collections of epic 3D printer fails.
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\goo Research published a detailed report on a survey they conducted into Apple’s iPhone, with a particular focus on the largest carrier in Japan, Docomo, and their plan to carry the new iPhone5s and iPhone5c, their first foray into Apple phones.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 17th of September 2013 1,765 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.6% of the sample were female, 7.5% in their teens, 12.5% in their twenties, 15.9% in their thirties, 14.8% in their forties, 14.4% in their fifties, and 34.9% aged sixty or older. The percentages in each age band and both sexes reflected the results of the 2010 Census.

Again, I am quite stunned by the positive view of the general public here of the iPhone. In Q3Q3, note that in the top eight answers, only one answer is perhaps related to the quality of Android, whereas the top three in Q3Q1 seem to relate directly to the iPhone’s qualities.
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Macromill Research conducted a survey into the attractions of the iPhone which revealed some rather interesting data.

Demographics

On the 11th of September 2013 between the hours of 7 pm and 9 pm 2,000 members of the Macromill online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The respondents were between the ages of 15 and 69 years old, and the sex and age demographics were (if I understand the Japanese term correctly!) distributed equally, as Macromill usually do; 50:50 male and female, and a sixth in each age band from teens to sixties.

Personally, I dislike the iPhone as it feels too rigid an ecosystem, everyone has one, and I’m just not an Apple fan, and particularly not a fan of Apple fans! Looking at the data, I can now understand why docomo decided to join the other two carriers and start selling Apple’s device.
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