世論 What Japan Thinks

With the sub-notebook market hotting up, and the Asus Eee PC available even in the big electrical superstores at a reasonable price, making it the top-selling portable according to Kakaku.com at the time or writing, this is a good tim to take a look at a recent survey published by japan.internet.com and conducted by goo Research into home computers, with the column focusing on portable machines.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 3rd of July 2008 1,101 members of the goo Research online monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 8.7% in their teens, 26.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, and 27.6% aged fifty or older.

In addition to the previously-mentioned Eee PC, other people getting in on the market in Japan include HP with their HP 2133 Mini-Note PC and local maker Kohjinsha with their imaginatively-named SC3KP06A. I’m hoping that the Acer Aspire One will be out by the time I pass back through duty-free at the end of the month, and judging by a recent article on The Register I’ll be spoilt for choice as a flood of Intel Atom-based sub-notebooks come out at the end of this month. I want the Linux one, not for any anti-Microsoft reasons, but just that I’m a stingey git…
Read the rest of this entry »

The summer seeing the launch of DoCoMo’s new 906 and 706 series, and new ranges from SoftBank and au that don’t fall under a nice name umbrella, and I’ve heard a rumour or two about a new phone from Canada or somewhere made by I think Microsoft and called the zPHune, but perhaps I misheard. Anyway, this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at this as part of their 38th regular survey into mobile upgrade needs.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 19th of June 2008 exactly 1,000 mobile phone users from the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were female, 1.9% in their teens, 15.2% in their twenties, 38.0% in their thirties, 28.6% in their forties, and 16.3% aged fifty or older.

I’ve got no intention of upgrading right now, although when I get round to it (after my winter bonus?) the only important feature will be One Seg digital terrestrial television support, and I’ll be buying a summer model then as they’ll be affordable. However, I’m not sure if I’ll actually watch TV on a mobile, but I’d like to have a phone that gave me the option, just in case.
Read the rest of this entry »

In anticipation of the launch of the iPhone through SoftBank – no, no, please continue reading, this isn’t another iPhone survey, but I must admit it is related – MyVoice decided to conduct a survey into touch panel-equipped mobile devices.

Demographics

Over the first five days of June 2008 13,960 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 16% in their fifties.

In Q1, not surprisingly the Nintendo DS and other touch screen games are out in front, but second is digital camera. Are there that many out there? Similarly the non-iPod touch music player percentage seems a little high to me. I also think a PDA would fall under the “mobile information terminal” classification.

Here’s a short video of the touch-screen cellphone you’re all waiting for…

This survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into the matter of the iPhone also finds that a surprising to me percentage of people are aware of the details of the launch of the device.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 23th of June 2008 300 members of the Marsh online monitor successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sex and age breakdown was not reported, although Marsh usually has a 50:50 sex split, and 20% of people in their teens, twenties, thirties and forties, and the remaining 20% split between those in their fifties and those aged sixty or older.

My price predictions, then my reports of a leaked pricing memo have both turned out to be wrong, as on the 23th of June there was an official annoucement of the iPhone price. I still feel that the price is a bit low and as it undercuts the Series X smartphone prices, so I wonder if there is hidden charges or any extras that will bring the price up a bit. In Japan, as there is little public WiFi, the iPhone will put quite a strain on the mobile network, so does SoftBank have the capacity to handle a successful iPhone?

Oh, and here’s a rather low-quality video of the Japanese 12-key input method running in an emulator, using a mouse rather than a finger. I like the pop-ups when you hold down a button.

Perhaps I should temporarily rename the blog to “携帯 What Japan Thinks of the iPhone” since I’m joining in on the hype at every opportunity! This time it is JR Tokai Express Research Inc, as reported by japan.internet.com, carring out a survey into the iPhone.

Demographics

On the 13th of June 2008 330 mobile phone-using members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in private industry completed a members-only internet-based questionnaire. 71.2% of the sample were male, 11.8% in their twenties, 44.5% in their thirties, 32.4% in their forties, 9.1% in their fifties, and 1.8% in their sixties.

In Q2, it is curious that 10 people selected SMS as a feature they wanted to use. The users of SMS are few indeed, I think (I can’t remember the last time mentioned it on this blog), as a full email service (including HTML these days) is standard on phones, and there’s no such thing as free SMS in most plans. Perhaps it’s just that a few people are curious to see what exactly the fuss is about?

Read the rest of this entry »

Although a survey last year showed that around 40% fancied an iPhone, now we have the first survey regarding the concrete release date to see if people are prepared to put their money where their mouths are. This survey was conducted by iShare and BlogCh and the topic was actually mobile phone battery changing, but since the iPhone doesn’t have a user-changeable battery pack, they shoehorned an iPhone question in.

Demographics

Over the 5th and 6th of June 2008 402 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.5% of the sample was male, 12.2% in their twenties, 43.5% in their thirties, 34.8% in their forties, and 9.5% in their teens or over fifty.

If you’ve read my recent estimate of monthly fees for a SoftBank iPhone you may be put off buying it, I suspect. I’ve had some criticism of my figures, but I wanted to choose 300 free minutes as a realistic figure, as that is just 10 minutes a day with free calls only to other SoftBank owners, and the X Series unlimited packet service at 9,800 yen a month is their Smartphone tariff, and although there is a sliding scale of charges, the upper limit of 52,500 packets per month is just 6.7 megabytes of data, or about 224 kilobytes per day, or just one page of many popular web sites, thus surely everyone will use their full allowance.
Read the rest of this entry »

With both mobile phones and still cameras coming with video recording facilities, is there still a market for stand-alone video cameras? This recent survey from MyVoice looked at the usage of video cameras to try to find out. Video cameras covers all stand-alone primarily video-recording devices, including those with tape, memory card or hard disk media.

Demographics

Over the first five days of May 2008 14,326 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, 37% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 17% in their fifties.

My video camera only gets dragged out for foreign holidays, and actually I haven’t copied the tapes to video for the last three years… With the new DiGa, though, there is a digital in from cameras, so perhaps I can get the dubbing done quicker?

With the new AdSense for YouTube features, perhaps I should dust it off and start shooting cat videos?
Read the rest of this entry »

If you want to see people using public WiFi in central Osaka, don’t head towards the nearest Starbucks, but instead choose the Pokemon Center where you’ll see big groups of kids huddled around the gaming access point there. This recent survey from Marsh and reported on by japan.internet.com into public wireless LAN (WiFi) suggests that games machines are beating PDAs at least.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 8th of June 2008 300 members of the Marsh internet monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample was male, 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’ve posted this before, but I’ll post again; if you want to find a public wireless access point in Japan, this site in English aids your search. However, the one at Yodobashi Camera was WAP-protected when I tried, although their electricity sockets do work. The iPhone is going to suffer in Japan from this lack of availability.

Thanks to running NetStumbler on my way home, although I pass through about 22 railway stations, including changing trains at the largest station in Osaka, the only open WiFi I pick up are misconfigured domestic routers. Many of the stations seem to have locked-up tight corporate WiFi points only.
Read the rest of this entry »

With the analogue switch-off only three years away, this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into television finds that there are still a awful lot of old televisions still in circulation.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 9th of June 2008 1,001 members of the goo Research online monitor group successfully completed an internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 9.0% in their teens, 23.0% in their twenties, 24.2% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, and 27.7% aged fifty or older.

The Japanese for CRT is ブラウン管, buraun kan, which I thought referred to the colour of initial devices, so it meant a “brown tube”, but just last weekend I learnt that it’s so named from the German inventor Braun; in Germany also the CRT is usually called a Braun tube (or whatever the German for tube is).
Read the rest of this entry »

With Patch Tuesday tomorrow promising (threatening?) three critical updates, let’s look at this survey from JR Tokai Express Research Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into comnputer maintainance at home.

Demographics
Over the 3rd and 4th of June 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.9% of the sample were male, 3.3% in their teens, 16.4% in their twenties, 40.3% in their thirties, 21.8% in their forties, 10.0% in their fifties, 5.8% in their sixties, and 2.4% aged seventy or older.

I’m not 100% which camp I fall into, as I have Windows set up to automatically download, but to notify me before install. In addition, I visit Windows Update once a month or so just to see if there is any extra optional components. As for defragmenting, I’ve never done that on my home PC, mostly as it’s too slow, although I’ll do it at work just to make me look busy. I might just do it tonight just to see what happens.
Read the rest of this entry »