世論 What Japan Thinks

This was quite a surprising result for me, to see how newcomers into the digital camera market, Panasonic and Sony, were becoming forces to be reckoned with, according to the results of this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 7th of April 2009 1,085 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 15.6% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.6% aged sixty or older.

There’s a lot of good photography in Japan blogs appearing now – two of my favourites are Tokyo Times and i, cjw.

Hmm, a post about cameras without a photograph…
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This look with MyVoice at DVD (and other media) recorder usage, their fifth survey on the topic, revealed a few interesting statistics such as the one in the headline and that the now defunct-for-over-a-year HD DVD format still outranks Blu-Ray recorders, although as noted last time I reported such a number, one wonders if there is a degree of misidentification by users. I wonder if HD DVD suggested Hard Disk plus DVD to some respondents?

Demographics

Over the first five days or March 2009 15,482 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 19% aged fifty or older.

I got hit by a rather irritating feature between my cable box and my DVD recorder. Despite both being made by the same company, you cannot get a digital out into the DVD recorder that will allow me to record two channels at once. The support line said the only option was to rent their high-end set-top box that has a built-in hard disk recorder, but that seemed rather unsatisfactory, especially as we only took their cheapest package of converting our existing analog service to digital but no high vision, so we’ve ended up paying them an extra 300 yen plus we get a thinner paper program guide for the privilege.
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This recent survey from RealWorld RealResearch and reported on by japan.internet.com into earphones and headphones is one I’d like to see the full results for, as I’d like to learn more about why people buy new ‘phones; how much is being forced due to breakage, and how much is due to dissatisfaction with the stock set.

Research results

Over the 18th and 19th of March 2009 1,100 members of the RealWorld RealResearch monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.1% of the sample were male, 8.1% in their teens, 19.2% in their twenties, 25.9% in their thirties, 21.1% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 9.9% aged sixty or older.

This is yet another survey showing how that digital players are on dominating the market, in both the form of the iPod and friends and as mobile phones with music features.

I don’t own any sort of portable player, so I cannot comment on the survey. However, I do promote earphones, and you can see pictured above Mickey Mouse earbuds, but if that’s not quite your thing, can I interest you in piggy-shaped ones?
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The one thing that isn’t a dishwasher in Japan is the average husband (a suspiciously-optimistic figure of one in four wash them) and it’s the third most hated job for wives, so with that in mind, this survey from MyVoice looked at how dishwashers are used in Japan.

Demographics

Over the first five days of March 2009 15,395 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 36% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

We once bought a counter-top dishwasher, but it was too slow and not reliable at cleaning, so we only ever used it half a dozen times. We tried to palm it off to the parents-in-law, but they were similarly unimpressed and sent it back! It’s now gathering dust (and rust, no doubt) in the back of our trunk room.

I do the evening washing up all the time, so if we actually had a dishwasher I’d be seen to be not pulling my weight with the housework, therefore no dishwasher actually helps maintain domestic harmony! I do actually enjoy (well, not actively dislike) doing them, which does help.
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With the launch of UQ Communications’ WiMAX service in Japan on the 26th of February, Marsh Inc performed a survey, reportd on by japan.internet.com, into awareness of WiMAX.

Demographics

Over the 5th and 6th of March 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Exactly 50.0% of the sample were male, 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 14.7% in their fifties, and 5.3% aged sixty or older.

WiMAX is, of course, err, I don’t really know – something to do with next generation high-speed wireless is about the extent of my knowledge, so instead have a look at a story on Asiajin to see a bit more about what it is.

Q1 is a bit surprising with only 63.0% aware of WiFi. The complete question was not reported, so I wonder if there was something a bit strange about the phrasing.

Q1SQ2 seems a bit strange as the implication is that over 40% of the sample learnt about UQ WiMAX between the asking of Q1 and Q1SQ2, so for this question too there must have been some strange phrasing.
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I’m more of an SD card person myself, so I’ve never actually owned a USB thumb device, but this recent survey repotred on by japan.internet.com and conducted by goo Research into said USB memory found that I am very much in the minority in Japan.

Demographics

Between the 25th of February and the 3rd of March 2009 1,075 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

Talking of USB memory, if you have more than you can plug into your PC at one time, Strapya has a R2D2 and Darth Vader USB hub!

I read last month about an interesting (for “interesting” read “useless”) USB memory-centred security system for PCs from NTT; they encrypt the hard drive, then select random parts of the encrypted files to write out to USB memory, the theory being that the PC without the USB memory or vice versa is useless. However, I cannot actually think of valid threats that this defends against, unless the memory dongle has a wired or wireless tether, and if there’s a tether you don’t need the writing to USB memory, and all it does is introduce another point of failure, especially as a detached USB drive is easy to lose.

I can guess that it’s patented, as sadly that seems the major driver behind many developments at my employer at least.
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It’s been a while since I’ve looked at the console market in Japan, so I’m glad to have the chance to present the rather surprising results of a survey conducted by RealWorld RealResearch and reported on by japan.internet.com into home gaming consoles, a survey explicitly excluding portable devices.

Demographics

Over the 4th and 5th of March 2009 1,040 members of the RealWorld RealResearch monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.9% of the sample were male, 5.1% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 22.3% in their thirties, 22.7% in their forties, 16.3% in their fifties, and 15.7% aged sixty or older.

I keep saying “I have to get a Wii!” every time I cover consoles, yet I never get round to actually parting with the cash, so without any further ado:

I have to get a Wii!

It feels a bit odd to refer to the Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox360 as “next generation” even after about two years on the market, but that’s what the survey uses so I’ll use it too.
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As quite often happens, this report published by japan.internet.com regarding a survey conducted by iBridge Research Plus into women and home computers was interesting yet frustrating in the incompleteness of the data.

Demographics

On the 23rd of February 2009 300 female members of the iBridge Research Plus monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 23.3% of the sample were in their twenties, 34.7% in their thirties, 29.3% in their forties, 9.6% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.

The first frustration is that there is no domestic status described, as it would be interesting to see how they share computers with their husbands, children, parents or flatmates.

A second frustration is no information regarding whether wives get hand-me-downs from their husbands, or if their own PC was bought new, and if so, how much input did they themselves have in the decision.

We have a shared PC at home, running Vista with my wife’s account set to Japanese, mine to English, which does work rather well. We’ve no money for a computer each, but if we did I’d probably get a nice wee Netbook for myself.
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With many mobile phones both here in Japan and abroad sprouting touch panels and full keyboards, this recent survey by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile phone input facilities revealed a few interesting statistics about them.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 17th of February 2009 1,074 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 15.5% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 12.4% in their sixties.

The survey also investigated voice input, but it is just the simple pattern matching for speed dial, I believe, a feature standard on many phones. I believe the next big feature for Japanese phones will be the dictation of email messages, but I also believe it won’t work very well and will not find any significant mainstream use.

If I had the money, I’d really love to upgrade to the Sharp S004, featuring all three of the features asked about here, a full keyboard, a touch panel, and an accelerometer.
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Following up on yesterday’s broken digital cameras, today we look with goo Research again, reported on by japan.internet.com, into hard disk faults.

Demographics

Over the 27th and 28th of January 2009 1,092 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.7% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.3% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

I had a hard disk crash a few years ago and lost perhaps 20% of my photo collection. I now use Vista’s built-in backup tool to do weekly backups, but I’m not convinced at all that it is backing up everything it should be, and it has a funny habit of spewing out errors on boot-up on days it isn’t running. Can anyone recommend a cheap or free backup to DVD software package for Vista?
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