世論 What Japan Thinks

Here is the second of this week’s smartphone surveys, this time it is iShare reporting on smartphones, voice calls and VoIP, where VoIP is Voice over Internet Protocol, in other words calls made computer to computer using an internet connection rather than phone to phone dialed calls. The best-known VoIP packages are probably Skype and Google Talk.

Demographics

Over the 3rd and 4th of October 2011 1,209 smartphone using members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were female, 29.4% in their twenties, and 70.6% in their thirties.

As we saw from yesterday’s survey, about one in three smartphone users also have a standard mobile. However, all the questions in this survey referred to smartphone usage only.

I’m getting the itching to buy a smartphone again. I was looking at the pricing and as you can now get free wifi, and access to docomo’s official smartphone web mail sp-mode free from data package charges, it should be possible to run a smartphone for less than I currently pay for my dumb phone, namely 2,500 yen per month or so.
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[part 1][part 2]

iShare recently reported on a survey conducted into the characteristics of global versus galapagos smartphone users. Here galapagos refers to the Galapagos Syndrome, how Japanese mobile phones have evolved to address Japanese market needs, yet are totally unsuited to the global market. Galapagos smartphones are the usually Android-based phones loaded with local must-haves like infra-red, one seg digital television, and Osaifu Keitai, contactless IC Chip-based payments.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 22nd of August 2011 736 smartphone-owning members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 65.1% of the sample were male, 11.3% in their twenties, 36.7% in their thirties, 37.4% in their forties, and 14.7% in their fifties.

It was interesting to see that people with global smartphones were more likely to use Twitter and Facebook; it would have been useful to select a couple of representative Japan-born equivalents (not sure what would be Twitter, but mixi is Facebook) to see if galapagos owners tend to remain in isolation.

Note that most of the questions below have separate columns for global smartphone and galapagos smartphone owners.
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[part 1][part 2]

iShare recently reported on a survey conducted into the characteristics of global versus galapagos smartphone users. Here galapagos refers to the Galapagos Syndrome, how Japanese mobile phones have evolved to address Japanese market needs, yet are totally unsuited to the global market. Galapagos smartphones are the usually Android-based phones loaded with local must-haves like infra-red, one seg digital television, and Osaifu Keitai, contactless IC Chip-based payments.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 22nd of August 2011 736 smartphone-owning members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 65.1% of the sample were male, 11.3% in their twenties, 36.7% in their thirties, 37.4% in their forties, and 14.7% in their fifties.

I will probably buy a gala-sma versus a glo-sma, to use the abbreviated terms for the two types, although I’m also tempted by a Samsung Galaxy (assuming Apple don’t sue them out of the market…) which seems to be a nice halfway house. If I was being logical, I’d just choose an iPhone, but I have a dislike of the image surrounding Apple users and their network stinks!
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[part 1][part 2]

iShare recently took a close look at the size of breasts in Japan, as one does. Given the ample size, I’ll split the results into two posts.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 29th of August 2011 650 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The 438 women were split into 31.7% in their twenties and 68.3% in their thirties. The 212 men were split into 22.2% in their twenties and 77.8% in their thirties.

Not surprisingly, men were more in favour of larger breasts, but by not quite as much as I imagined, and a whole 3.3% wanting A cups or less was a difficult to understand result!
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[part 1][part 2]

iShare recently took a close look at the size of breasts in Japan, as one does. Given the ample size, I’ll split the results into two posts.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 29th of August 2011 650 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The 438 women were split into 31.7% in their twenties and 68.3% in their thirties. The 212 men were split into 22.2% in their twenties and 77.8% in their thirties.

It may seem odd, but one of the major underwear makers released in April last year an internet-only breast-reduction bra and sold all 2,000 pairs almost immediately, hastely produced another 6,000 pairs which again sold like hotcakes. From the 7th of this month they are selling this year’s model, again internet-only.
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iShare recently took a look at the use of corporate apps.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 27th of June 2011 1,871 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service who had downloaded an app to their smartphone completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 84.7% of the sample were male, 5.4% in their twenties, 43.6% in their thirties, 40.0% in their forties, and 11.0% in their fifties.

Not having a smartphone myself, and not having played with such an app on someone else’s smartphone, I cannot really make any comment here!
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iShare recently performed a survey that might be of interest to my readers who are residents in Japan, looking at where Japanese buy their contact lenses.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 11th of July 2011 1,187 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was pre-screened to select people who had purchased contact lenses for themselves within the last year. 50.1% of the sample were female and respondents were aged between 16 and 60 years old, but no further demographic breakdown was given.

I used to wear contact lenses, but gave up after I lost one in Japan and didn’t really fancy going to all the bother of getting measured up for a replacement. I think I did previously replace my contact lenses in Japan, but the name of the shop escapes me completely!
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iShare got away from earthquake-related topics and instead took a look at continuting studying correspondence courses. The study was conducted in conjunction with Tokyo Legal Mind and their correspondence course program iCara powered by LEC.

Demographics

Over the 5th and 6th in July 2011 1,723 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 70.5% of the sample were male, 12.1% in their twenties and 87.9% in their thirties. All of them were businesspersons in fulltime regular employment.

The timing of this is rather apt for me as I have just started doing an online correspondence course on internet marketing. The course starts off with a 30-day build-your-first-business course, with tasks every day; today I have to write a 500 word product summary and a 250 word About page, so spinning this report out over two days will give me a bit of breathing space!

The second half of the survey starts off with the subset of the sample who managed to continue correspondence courses all the way to the end.

As you can see by comparing the results of Q2SQ8 from the previous part and Q2SQ14 in this part, it was those who set a definite duration for their studying that tended to see things through to the end. This is what I am hoping is going to happen with my course too.

Note that attending lectures for correspondence courses includes watching on DVD or online, not just, or not at all attending in person.
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iShare got away from earthquake-related topics and instead took a look at continuting studying correspondence courses. The study was conducted in conjunction with Tokyo Legal Mind and their correspondence course program iCara powered by LEC.

Demographics

Over the 5th and 6th in July 2011 1,723 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 70.5% of the sample were male, 12.1% in their twenties and 87.9% in their thirties. All of them were businesspersons in fulltime regular employment.

The timing of this is rather apt for me as I have just started doing an online correspondence course on internet marketing. The course starts off with a 30-day build-your-first-business course, with tasks every day; today I have to write a 500 word product summary and a 250 word About page, so spinning this report out over two days will give me a bit of breathing space!

In Q2, doing a correspondence course while at school seems such an alien concept to me, but in Japan with cram schools being almost a necessity, more than likely most of the one in four who did correspondence courses as a child were studying for entrance exams.
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[part 1] [part 2]

With Panasonic in particular chasing the female market with their P-07C Android smartphone, iShare took a look at the basics of how women choose smartphones.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 16th of June 2011 968 female members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 10.8% of the sample were in their twenties, 45.1% in their thirties, and 44.0% in their forties.

The second half of the survey concentrated mostly on smartphone users. I’m not really suprised that in Q10SQ Bluetooth is the most frequently unused feature, but I am surprised that music playing is. Perhaps worries about battery life outweigh the desire to use the feature?
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