世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com recently reported on a very interesting survey conducted by goo Research into mobile devices, their very first in a new series of monthly surveys.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 6th of August 2009 1,087 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a computer internet-based questionnaire. 52.4% of the sample were male, 17.3% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, and 27.3% in their fifties.

You’ll notice that as well as netbooks there are also UMPCs, or Ultra-Mobile Personal Computers and MIDs, Mobile Internet Devices. A survey from earlier this year contained an explanation of the differences between netbooks and UMPCs, and MIDs seem to be the halfway house between a smartphone and a netbook or UMPC. Oh, and a PND appears to be a Personal Navigation Device, or a GPS-based route-mapping device.

I also think that Q1 should have included the iPod Touch.

I don’t carry anything other than a dumb phone, but I want to buy a netbook some time… I used to be interested in getting a Japan manufacturer-built Android-based mobile, but I’m going off the idea a bit.
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Following on from yesterday’s look at using a mobile phone as a wristwatch, this time Marsh Inc looked at using a mobile as an alarm clock in a survey reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 30th of July and the 1st of August 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, with 2.0% in their teens, 18.0% 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 use an alarm clock, I recently received one for my birthday, a cat-themed one that is insulated enough not to tick, but screams out in Japanese in the morning “GET UP! MEOWWWW! IT’S TIME! MEOWwwww! GET UP!” and rather than a lever to batter it into silence, I need to fiddle with a recessed switch, and as I turn it off it screams again “YOU’VE GOT UP, PERHAPS?” I should record it tomorrow and upload a movie…
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Here’s a curious look at iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into wristwatches.

Demographics

On the 4th of August 2009 300 members of the iBridge Research Plus monitor group who were currently employed or students completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 73.7% of the sample were male, 15.7% in their twenties, 33.0% in their thirties, 30.7% in their forties, 19.0% in their fifties, and 1.7% in their sixties.

I have a watch, but only wear it at weekends, as during weekdays at work there are more than enough clocks in the office or the railway station, so why bother? It’s also a watch I got free for Air Miles that has had all its rhinestones fall out and its sky-blue fake leather strap is not really fitting for the business environment, and anyway it gets in the way when I type.
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One of the biggest differences in standard mobile phone usage between Japan and the West is that almost every phone here supports full internet email by default, with for at least the last three or four years support for HTML graphic email, and even now simple Flash authoring, and older handsets even have a fall-back mode to allow them to view graphic mail online. On the other hand, the West is still wedded to SMS. With that in mind, let’s have a look at a recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into computer usage of mobile phone users.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 14th of July 2009 1,048 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private mobile phone based questionnaire. 54.5% of the sample were female, 2.8% in their teens, 26.6% in their twenties, 41.2% in their thirties, 23.5% in their forties, and 5.8% aged fifty or older.

Note that to register as a goo Research monitor one must first sign up with a computer (or a mobile phone with a full browser), then join their mobile monitor group, so as can be seen below, all bar one percent of the sample also have a computer, which does bias the sample one way. However, most mobile-only surveys tend to bias the sample towards heavier mobile users, but even with this bias, the high number who treat their mobile phone as their main email tool is quite surprising to me.
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After one year of the iPhone in Japan, how is it viewed? This was the question posed by iShare when they conducted a survey into the iPhone.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 10th of July 2009 568 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were male, 35.6% in their twenties, 29.2% in their thirties, and 35.2% in their forties.

I’ve not actually touched an iPhone, although I do feel it would be nice from certain points of view, but I’m not really that big an Apple fan, and as most of my email is emoticon, emoji and decomail-ridden I don’t think that the iPhone is the best fit for me.

However, I am looking forward to Japanese manufacturers bringing out their own Android-based mobiles but… ah, I’ll stop there.
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This recent survey from Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile spam found that almost half of all Japanese are getting multiple mobile spams per day.

Demographics

On the 21st of June 2009 800 members of the Point On Research monitor panel completed a private mobile phone-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 fiftise.

Note that in May a similar survey found a smaller percentage of people getting mobile spam email, but goo Research’s panel is primarily PC internet-based, whereas this sample is for mobile users, who tend to be heavy users, thus more exposure to sites that might be inclined to spam.
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Looking at this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile phones, with this particular report focusing on video content, I find it quite surprising that downloaded content is almost as popular as the free over-the-air television broadcasts, and that content converted to mobile format is also not that uncommon.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 7th of July 2009 1,065 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 20.9% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.4% aged sixty or older.

It is very curious that 16.3% do not have a mobile phone – the usual percentage is around 5%. Has goo Research recently changed the demographic balance of their monitor panel?

My biggest surprise was from Q2SQ2, in that just 15% said they watched while commuting, and even less at other times on the move. I have heard that it is seen as a little embarrassing to be watching TV on the train for some people, but I’d like to see a more detailed survey on that. Indeed, it has been quite a while since I’ve translated a survey on in-train activities.
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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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goo Research recently conducted their 47th regular mobile phone upgrade needs survey.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 26th of June 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were female, 1.8% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 34.0% in their thirties, 26.8% in their forties, and 18.9% aged fifty or older.

I’ve had a look at this summer’s models, and the first one to catch my eye was the Toshiba T-01A offered through docomo, but it doesn’t fit into my hand and feels cheap and flimsy, and it’s not up to spec for Japan; it looks like a rebadged US phone, but apparently it isn’t. Next is the new HTC HT-03A, the very first Google Android phone for Japan, which is extremely comfortable to hold, but again it is missing most of the standard Japanese features like One Seg television, FeliCa electronic cash, and emoji. I also had a look at the Biblio also from Toshiba and au, touted as an electronic book reader as well as a phone, but I was struck by how heavy it felt. It looks like I’ll be keeping my very old P702iD for a few more months until one of the Japanese manufacturers comes out with a proper Android phone with all the add-ons we expect to see in Japan.
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It’s been a couple of years since the last time I had a look at a survey on QR Codes, so it was nice to see this one from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of June 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 0.3% were in their teens, 19.7% 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 most often read QR Codes from advertising leaflets, usually encoding an email address that allows me to sign up to a mailing list to get a discount coupon for a restaurant I’m visiting. A few months ago I used one to enter a competition, and won 2,500 yen’s worth of food vouchers.

Just last month I wanted to read the QR Codes of friends from Nokia’s laptop computers – they were some sort of inventory tag, but they didn’t want to let me just in case it contained confidential information, but I did think sticking a 10 centimetre square tag on a computer case was hardly the way to handle such information! They checked with their Nokia app, and it was just a boring vCard-type tag.
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