世論 What Japan Thinks

A recent survey from iShare looking at mobile phone types found that clamshells with the standard ten keys were both the most popular current phone and future phone.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 12th of April 2010 520 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.3% of the sample were male, 31.0% were in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, and 38.8% in their forties.

Interestingly enough, touch panel smartphones were around twice as popular with males as females. I got the impression from other surveys that there was more significant iPhone penetration with women.

If I can afford an unlimited data packet plan, my next phone will be a flat touch panel smartphone; if I decide to stay stingy and stick with email, it will be a ten key clamphone like my current.
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With KDDI running the au design project that is producing a number of interesting phones, this look by Marsh Inc, reported on by japan.internet.com, into cellphone design found that simple, if not just downright boring, was best.

Demographics

Over the 9th and 10th of April 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were female, 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’m a bit surprised that they didn’t include a suitable category for the iPhone to fall under in Q1. The straight type implies more the standard candybar rather than the… how would you describe the iPhone’s form factor?

I’m a clamshell adult elegant black or two-tone sort of guy myself.
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This survey has perhaps a rather narrow sample, but it is the early 20s women who are the trend leaders (or the first to adapt trends promoted by industry, depending on how cynical you want to be) so this recent survey sponsored by JIDPO (Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization) and conducted by goo Research into design reveals a number of interesting numbers.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 5th of December 2008 1,102 women from the goo Research monitor group aged between 20 and 26 answered an online private questionnaire. 33.2% of the sample resided in the Tokyo area, 33.6% in the Osaka area, and 33.2% in the Nagoya area. 9.9% of the sample were aged 20, 14.0% aged 21, 17.2% aged 22, 16.4% aged 23, 20.1% aged 24, 21.8% aged 25, and 0.6% aged 26.

Not surprisingly Apple feature prominently, but note that in Q1 there are six or less iPhone owners who rate their device (cross reference the data with Q3), versus 125 iPod owners, yet in Q2 the iPhone is the second-most appreciated device that people do not own. Both the SoftBank CEO and I know the reason for that.

I am surprised, however, by Sharp’s mobiles being high on the list. Their AQUOS mobile phone ball joint is an impressive piece of industrial design, but the overall phone is a bit ordinary, I feel. My personal favourite mobile phone from a design point of view is the NEC N703iD credit-card themed one.

Oh, and my wife has modelled wedding dresses for the Yumi Katsura in Q8.
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With most phones now crammed full with the latest features, most manufacturers are putting more effort into the design aspect of their phones as the differentiating feature. To see how consumers perceive the look of their mobiles, MyVoice conducted a survey into mobile phone design.

Demographics

Over the first five days of September 2008 15,502 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens,l 15% in their twenties, 36% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 19% in their fifties.

The first phone that I felt was stunning in design terms was the Sharp Aquos with the rotating screen that could change from portrait for standard email use to landscape for One Seg television watching. That phone first came out on SoftBank, but it’s now offered by all three major carriers. To my overseas readers – have Sharp licenced that technology to any foreign manufacturers? I seem to remember hearing that Panasonic’s push-button opening for clamshells has been licenced overseas, but Panasonic seem to keep that feature to themselves as a differentiating factor for the domestic market.

In the graph, I kept Sony-Ericsson separate as some of their hardware is worldwide, some domestic only.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research into the topic of mobile phone design. 330 members of their monitor pool chose to reply to the private internet-based survey. 64.2% of the sample were male, 18.5% in their twenties, 44.2% in their thirties, 27.0% in their forties, 8.2% in their fifties, and 2.1% in their sixties.

My current mobile is a matt black adult elegance (not quite designer-ish enough to be an art phone) P702iD, but my current favourite design-wise is NEC’s credit card N702iD, especially in the bold red colour. The black “magnetic strip” actually operates as a ticker for mail preview or news headlines, etc.
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Jan Kuczynski let me know about a survey he translated on the colour and ‘feel’ of handsets that people in Japan want. A rather interesting survey that I wish I’d found first. I can’t imagine what a plant-like feel phone would be though!

I also hope that it’s just mobiles that these three women in his logo are holding…