世論 What Japan Thinks

As a sort-of follow-up on a recent survey into internet performance, this time we look with Marsh Inc and japan.internet.com at computer dissatisfaction.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 17th of January 2010 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were female, 2.3% in their teens, 17.7% 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’m mostly satisfied with my setup at home - it’s no speed demon, but it wasn’t bought as one, although it could do with a little bit of extra memory as it gets a bit slow when memory fills up, and the mouse is rather wonky.

Interestingly, in this survey everyone had a home computer, although usually there’s always one or two who do their surveys from the office or an internet cafe - I presume they pre-screened the sample.
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A recent survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at people’s home computer environment. This is a topic I previously covered almost two years ago.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 14th of September 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 1.0% were in their teens, 19.0% 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.

Q2 is a bit vague in the wording, as especially for a portable machine, the room in which it is placed, which implies when not in use, and the room in which it is used may differ. I know when I take my work note PC home it sits in the study/spare room when I’m not using it, but I bring it through to the kitchen table when I want to use it. However my main desktop sits permanently at a computer desk in the study.

Which reminds me, I really should organise the area around my computer desk to be a proper homeworking setup…
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Here’s an interesting little survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into computer maintenance, looking in particular at cleaning one’s PC and accessories.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 5th of July 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 1.3% were in their teens, 18.7% 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 think the survey is looking at home computers, although there is no clear statement in the article to say that it is.

I must admit to only cleaning my PC once a year, although about once a month I do clean the fluff off the bottom of the mouse.
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The “Japanese” in the title refers to the people answering the questionnaire, not the make of the computers as a few foreign names found their way into this survey from MyVoice into computer maker brand image.

Demographics

Over the first five days of May 2009 14,915 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were male, 1% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 35% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 30% aged fifty or older.

It’s no surprise to me in Q5 that Apple came top, as a previous survey into design found Apple was way out in the lead.

For Q7, another survey earlier found that UMPC was actually better-known than Netbook, but here we see an almost four to one ratio of Netbook to UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC).
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Here’s an interesting survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looking at computer usage of mobile phone users, the fourth in the series of regular surveys.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 19th of February 2008 1,067 members of the goo Research mobile monitor group completed a mobile phone internet-based questionnaire. 57.5% of the sample were female, 3.9% in their teens, 29.2% in their twenties, 40.2% in their thirties, 21.4% in their forties, and 5.2% aged fifty or older. Note that one way that they recruit their mobile monitors is by getting them to enter their mobile phone email address when they apply to be a PC monitor, so bear that in mind while reading the results.

My mobile web use is limited to the occassional dictionary lookup and downloading of animated email icons, for reasons of it being too expensive, too slow, and too restrictive.

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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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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

This extremely detailed survey from goo Research in conjunction with the NTT DATA Institute of Management Consulting, Inc looked at old people and computer and internet usage, and comparing these habits with that of younger people.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 16th of September 2008 1,064 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 67.5% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 7.0% in their twenties, 17.4% in their thirties, 12.5% in their forties, 6.0% in their fifties, and 56.1% aged sixty or older. Note that everyone in the sample had access to a computer and has signed up to goo Research as a monitor, so please be aware of that before extrapolating the behaviour observed here to the general population of Japan.

In Q13, I hope the tiny percentage applying security patches excludes those getting pushed Windows updates automatically, and similarly I hope there are a lot of people unaware that their Windows firewall is on. I also wonder what the overlap between those with local anti-virus and those with their service provider’s virus scanning is. Most providers offer the scanning only as a premium service, even though solutions like AVG anti-virus will do everything for free.

In Q16 it is entertaining to see that the only things old folk do on line more than their juniors is share trading, dating, and Second Life!
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

This extremely detailed survey from goo Research in conjunction with the NTT DATA Institute of Management Consulting, Inc looked at old people and computer and internet usage, and comparing these habits with that of younger people.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 16th of September 2008 1,064 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 67.5% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 7.0% in their twenties, 17.4% in their thirties, 12.5% in their forties, 6.0% in their fifties, and 56.1% aged sixty or older. Note that everyone in the sample had access to a computer and has signed up to goo Research as a monitor, so please be aware of that before extrapolating the behaviour observed here to the general population of Japan.

In Q10 I an very surprised to see the majority of people use a spreadsheet on their home computer, and I wish I knew what sorts of uses they put it to. However, having observed at work how we get everything from databases to memos (yes, our middle-manager meeting minutes come delivered every week as a huge text box drawn in the middle of an otherwise blank spreadsheet) get delivered in Excel I cannot begin to guess what they are doing. The other surprising thing about the figure is that that many have Office installed; I’ve not seen any surveys that suggest anything other than a Microsoft monopoly at work, so why not at home too? Open Office or other free alternatives do not have the penetration in Japan.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

This extremely detailed survey from goo Research in conjunction with the NTT DATA Institute of Management Consulting, Inc looked at old people and computer and internet usage, and comparing these habits with that of younger people.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 16th of September 2008 1,064 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 67.5% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 7.0% in their twenties, 17.4% in their thirties, 12.5% in their forties, 6.0% in their fifties, and 56.1% aged sixty or older. Note that everyone in the sample had access to a computer and has signed up to goo Research as a monitor, so please be aware of that before extrapolating the behaviour observed here to the general population of Japan.

The literacy levels here are high, but as cautioned above one is dealing with a more computer-aware population.

Q2 is curious in that people want most to learn how to install new hardware. It would be interesting to find out if it’s for the curiousity value of opening the box and poking around, in order to save expensive upgrade fees from a third party, or to just connect a new printer or camera without requiring an on-site visit.

Q4, Q5 and Q6 show a very distinct and interesting split between the sexes.
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Whenever I get around to upgrading my desktop display, I think it will be a wide-screen monitor that I go for; sadly, this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into home computers did not discuss people’s purchase intentions.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 10th of November 2008 1,034 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed an internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

It’s interesting to note in Q1 that notebooks outnumber desktops at home, and surprising to see one in four notebooks are wide-screen, even allowing for dual-head users with an extra monitor plugged in.
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