世論 What Japan Thinks

Here are some interesting figures from Point On Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into the matter of the degree of dependence on mobile phones

Demographics

On the 13th of October 2009 800 mobile phone users completed a mobile phone-internet based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 25.0% in their teens, 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, and 25.0% in their forties.

One thing that’s not clear from the using it in the toilet bit is if it is one’s home toilet, a public toilet, or a toilet at work, as hiding in the toilets at the office to send furtive email is quite popular at my place of work, for instance.
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With GPS becoming standard in most of the higher-end mobile phones these days, this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at GPS devices in general.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 29th of September 2009 1,023 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

I don’t have GPS on my rather old and low-end phone, but I cannot really say I desperately want any of the features listed in Q2SQ. A walking history might be nice, as a few phones these days also have pedometers, so recording not just your paces but also your speed and distance walked might be useful for tracking one’s exercise patterns. Location-based search in itself is not compelling, but add in functionality such as only showing your favourite genres of restaurants, highly-rated locations, or places with discount coupons and then it becomes more useful, although whether or not I’d use it is debatable!
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Recently there has been a lot of moral panic (some justified, some unjustified) about schoolkids and their mobile phone usage in Japan, with a number of schools introducing various bans on usage. To find out what kids are up to these days, MacroMill Inc looked at high school students and mobile phones.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 17th of September 2009 300 high school students (therefore aged between 15 and 18) completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female. Note that the sample will be over-represented by heavier mobile phone users, so perhaps the figures here for usage of mobile phones in class, for instance, are higher than they are in reality, or at least I hope that is the case.

As I know there are a few people who teach in Japanese schools amongst my readership, I’d love to hear from you on how the results of this survey fit with your experiences at the chalkface.

I find it quite amazing that more students use their phones in the bath than in class! However, the fact that almost one in six admit to using them regularly in class is a pretty depressing statistic.
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Most mobile phones in Japan these days support not just static wallpaper, but also Flash-based animations, although the report by japan.internet.com on this survey from Point On Research into mobile phone wallpaper didn’t actually give any information on the uses of such animations, as the focus was on still pictures.

Demographics

On the 29th of September 2009 exactly 800 members of the Point On research monitor group completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 25.0% in their teens, 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, and 25.0% in their forties.

Q1 indicates a very curious demographic; the usual percentages for au and SoftBank are about 30% and 20%, but here we have a huge variation. Does their questionnaire web site not correctly operate on many SoftBank phones? Did SoftBank fail to deliver the request to participate in the survey?
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In the twelveth regular survey into electronic cash, conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com, it is now not just credit card electronic cash that has passed the 50% penetration mark, but also mobile phones have reached that milestone, although the majority of the mobile phone contactless IC chips are lying idle.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 30th of September 2009 1,094 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, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, and 27.5% aged fifty or older.

I don’t have an electronic cash-capable phone, but I recently bit the bullet and went for a smart card-based season ticket plus electronic cash functionality (Hankyu Stacia) and I must say it’s rather handy, although they have a horrendously unnecessarily complicated dual (could even be triple) parallel point system, although on my very first statement I got no points at all…
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Here is the second installment of a very interesting series of surveys from goo Research into mobile devices, as reported on by japan.internet.com. I translated the first installment last month.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 18th of September 2009 1,095 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16/8% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 27.2% aged fifty or older.

I used to be extremely excited about the new Sharp NetWalker – what’s not to love about the form factor of an electronic dictionary (A5-sized), running Linux, 10 hour battery life, high resolution touch screen, etc, etc. Well, after a play with it in the shops, the keyboard are closer to buttons than keys so have a dreadful feel, there’s a huge dead area around the screen, the touch pad is microscopic and the mouse buttons are under the left hand, 10 hours battery life is measured with minimum brightness and no sound, and the biggest killer, 45,000 yen price tag (40,000 yen if you shop around), or about 450 US dollars or 280 UK pounds. For less than that I can pick up any number of netbooks, and I’m off to the US at the end of the month so $320 for an Acer Aspire One delivered straight to my hotel room from Amazon sounds like a plan.
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This month’s 48th regular survey into mobile phone upgrade needs by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looked specifically at what features people look for in a new mobile phone.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 11th of September 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research monitor group completed an online questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were female, 1.0% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 34.7% in their thirties, 29.5% in their forties, and 19.0% aged fifty or older.

The original Japanese article’s headline was that four in ten teenagers want a waterproof mobile phone, but because the statistic is completely accurate according to this sample, it is highly inaccurate, as there was only ten teenagers in the whole sample, so the margin of error is vast! However, the trend for older people being more interested in water resistance is valid, and is perhaps a reflection on clumsiness increasing with age!

In Q2, one obvious (from a Western phone user point of view, I think) missing feature is synchronisation with calendar or address book applications; Bluetooth support suggests just wireless headphones to me as few Japanese computers come with built-in support. Unfortunately, there’s no “What USA Thinks” or “What UK Thinks” web site for me to cross-reference against, although if any of my readers have data, I’d love to hear it. Also in Q2, you’ll note that the iPhone has only four of the top ten features and none of the top three, whereas most of the higher-end Japanese phones have at least seven of them.
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This is a subject I’ve looked at a number of times, but I always find the results interesting. The subject is mobile phone coupons, counducted by Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 15th of September 2009 exactly 800 members of the Point On Research monitor group completed a mobile internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

The only mobile coupons I use are for Mister Donut, although recently they’ve been pretty poor, 20% off a second doughnut or the like. And they’ve also ended their half-price ice coffee promotion.
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About the only proper punctuation mark I use in my mobile emails is a question mark, and this recent survey from Point On Research, as reported on by japan.internet.com, into mobile phone email found that I’m in the majority in my smiley habits.

Demographics

On the first of September 2009 exactly 800 members of the Point On Research monitor group completed a mobile phone-based private questionnaire. 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, and 20.0% in their fifties.

I don’t really use much decomail, not even the animated emoji, as my phone’s a bit old and the interface for accessing them is pretty awkward, so I stick with emoji most of the time.

Oh, and if you need some kaomoji for your phone or PC, please visit my huge collection of Japanese emoticons and smilies.
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goo Research, in a survey reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at mobile phones, with this report focusing on the usage of the address books within mobile phones.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 24th of August 2009 1,070 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I haven’t backed up my mobile’s phone book for at least a year, I think, but then again I have so few entries that last year’s backup is probably still valid!

I was suprised to see that only about 5% use the shortcut dial feature, less than those typing numbers in directly. As far as I know most mobile phones have a feature where if you type in the address book index (one or two digits are OK, I think) then press the dial button it dials that entry, which is handy for me as my wife is registered in slot one.
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