世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s an interesting little survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into computer maintenance, looking in particular at cleaning one’s PC and accessories.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 5th of July 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 1.3% were in their teens, 18.7% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

I think the survey is looking at home computers, although there is no clear statement in the article to say that it is.

I must admit to only cleaning my PC once a year, although about once a month I do clean the fluff off the bottom of the mouse.
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With the release of the Apple iPhone 3GS on the 26th of June 2009, goo Research immediately conducted a survey into the iPhone, the results of which have been reported on japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 29th of June 2009 1,036 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

There was an interesting story recently on Asiajin (and other places) about how the iPhone 3GS popped up into first place in the sales rankings on release. Although there was discussion about the validity of the ranking, what was missed out was the Blackberry Bold being in 6th place, an extremely dubious positioning in my view. Looking further at the list of companies they survey for the sales figures, they do not survey the official carrier’s own shops, which in my view makes the data extremely inaccurate.

Looking at the charms of the iPhone, the big, big surprise for me is that the browser comes so low! If I were to get one, that would be the one function I would be purchasing it for.
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Given the high level of ownership of digital cameras reported in this survey from goo Research and featured on japan.internet.com, one has to wonder, as the question wasn’t answered in the article, why almost half the people manage less than 5 gigabytes of stored images.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 9th of June 2009 1,042 members of the goo Research monitor group completed an internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 17.7% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.8% aged sixty or older.

On the other hand, Q3 asks specifically about photographs one has taken oneself, and since it is the wife who usually uses the camera, probably less than 2 GB of the 20 GB or more is actually mine…
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There’s one very useful figure in this survey conducted by Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into typing, namely the use of romaji versus kana input – wait until after the demographics and I’ll explain it!

Demographics

Between the 5th and 7th of June 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and 2.7% were in their teens, 17.3% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

Japanese keyboards usually come with two layouts; one way to explain is to take as an example the word Tokyo, in kanji 東京. In romaji, meaning using the Roman alphabet to spell, one types “toukyou” on a standard QWERTY layout and presses the space bar to convert to kanji. For kana input, the five individual kana syllables that make up the word need to be typed, namely とうきょう, with an extra shift key push to get the small よ. On the standard kana layout, the keys correspond to “s4g)4″, so one can see that if you often mix Japanese and English, romaji input saves you having to learn two layouts.

On the other hand nearly all Japanese mobile phones use kana-based input, and indeed a recent phone was advertising as a unique feature the ability to input in romaji and convert to kanji.
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The “Japanese” in the title refers to the people answering the questionnaire, not the make of the computers as a few foreign names found their way into this survey from MyVoice into computer maker brand image.

Demographics

Over the first five days of May 2009 14,915 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were male, 1% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 35% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 30% aged fifty or older.

It’s no surprise to me in Q5 that Apple came top, as a previous survey into design found Apple was way out in the lead.

For Q7, another survey earlier found that UMPC was actually better-known than Netbook, but here we see an almost four to one ratio of Netbook to UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC).
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This month’s regular look at mobile phone upgrade needs (the 46th time it has been conducted) by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com had interesting results regarding two big recent developments in mobile phones, smartphones and high pixel-count cameras.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 22nd of May 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private intenet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were female, 2.0% in their teens, 16.7% in their twenties, 33.7% in their thirties, 28.4% in their forties, and 19.2% aged fifty or older.

This summer’s models brings cameras with up to 10 million pixels, which is getting to be overkill, as packing more pixels more densely actually can give worse results as one starts to get interference problems. In addition, without a decent lens you’re not going to be taking very good photographs anyway, and looking at the camera on the linked web page, the big round thing looks just for show as there is another tiny circle inside which looks to be the business end.

The number interested in smartphones is pretty low, but I suspect that they have an image of being foreign market-designed phones that feature few of the essential Japanese functions such as emoji, One-seg television, and smartcards. Up to now only Sharp with their SH-04 and related models have produced that sort of smartphone, but with many domestic manufacturers rushing to Google’s Android, expect to see many fully-functioned domestic smartphones this winter or next spring, assuming the carriers don’t request to the manufacturers that they avoid too much openness.
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Once again we have the results of the regular monthly surveys from goo Research and as reported by japan.internet.com into mobile phone upgrade needs, with this being the 45th time around.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 17th of April 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone users from the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were female, 1.1% in their teens, 19.1% in their twenties, 37.2% in their thirties, 24.2% in their forties, and 18.4% aged fifty or older.

As a comparison, the fortieth regular survey, translated here, also looked at what was important when choosing what to upgrade to. There design was the key feature, but now it is price, suggesting that the current financial uncertainties are weighing heavy in potential upgraders’ minds.
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Japan does have the image of being a very law-abiding country, and this survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into portable audio players does reinforce that stereotype.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 20th of April 2009 1,056 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.8% in their twenties, 20.9% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties,15.6% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

First of all, let me say that I am not clear on the finer details of Japanese copyright law, but in Q1SQ2 one might claim that copying from CD may be illegal, but assuming given the number of music rental shops that people copy from rented CDs, I believe the law does allow one to make copies, although I did read that it is supposed to be a degraded copy, so ripping to MP3 might be OK. Second of all, downloading other people’s illegally uploaded music is not illegal; it is only the uploading that falls foul of the law, although than might or might not change soon.
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PLC, or Power Line Communication, is basically a home networking scheme that allows one to use the standard mains cabling for networking computers. One needs a separate link to the outside world, of course, via ASDL or whatever, but otherwise just a pair of compact plug adapters will get you networked. PLC was the highlighted topic for this story on japan.internet.com based on a survey from goo Research into computers.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 12th of April 2009 1,089 members of the goo Research monitor team completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.0% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties and 11.8% aged sixty or older.

If I had a home without built-in ethernet, I’d probably choose PLC over wireless, as there are no worries about freeloaders or other security issues associated with WiFi and the speed is in theory higher, although on the other hand I’ve heard that the main problem with PLC is power spikes inferfering with connections whenever household electrical items turn on and off, and of course if you have an old building with dodgy wiring there’s going to be problems.
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With KDDI running the au design project that is producing a number of interesting phones, this look by Marsh Inc, reported on by japan.internet.com, into cellphone design found that simple, if not just downright boring, was best.

Demographics

Over the 9th and 10th of April 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were female, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

I’m a bit surprised that they didn’t include a suitable category for the iPhone to fall under in Q1. The straight type implies more the standard candybar rather than the… how would you describe the iPhone’s form factor?

I’m a clamshell adult elegant black or two-tone sort of guy myself.
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