世論 What Japan Thinks

With Skype already available on many smartphone, and indeed with Japan’s second-largest carrier, au, now preloading it onto many phones, this survey from goo Research looks at awareness of Skype and other associated issues.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 17th of November 2010 1,070 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.8% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.4% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

In Q2, I’m not sure if people were fully aware that Skype to Skype may be free (excluding packet charges), but Skype to non-Skype mobile phones requires payment. Furthermore, in Japan public wireless is rather thin on the ground, so even if the majority of mobile phones in Japan have it installed, calls are still going to have to be paid for more often than not.
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A recent survey by goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at IT-related technical terms.

Demographics

Between the 30th of July and the 3rd of August 2010 1,077 members of the goo Research online 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, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.1 aged sixty or older.

At work I often hear technical terms being bandied around that I think people either don’t understand, have misunderstood, or even worse, have taken on a specific meaning throughout the company not really related to the original definition. My two pet hates are “cloud” for “hetrogeneous network” and “black box” for “immutable interfaces”.
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This isn’t the first survey to indicate this, but this recent survey from Media Interactive, reported on by japan.internet.com, into Apple’s iPhone backed up statistics on the iPhone being almost as much a second phone as an only phone.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23rd of June 2010 exactly 1,000 internet users completed an online survey. 51.5% of the sample were male, 0.8% in their teens, 15.2% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 29.1% in their forties, 17.1% in their fifties, and 7.6% in their sixties.

You may want to check out yesterday’s look at the iPad.

I must admit to feeling a bit jealous of iPhone and other smartphone users these days, and sadly my summer bonus isn’t enough to cover an upgrade. However, I won’t touch SoftBank, and docomo’s recent annoucement of their removal of SIM Lock from next year will probably delay my upgrade even longer.

Note that the survey was conducted between the 21st and 23rd of June, but the iPhone 4 didn’t go on sale until the day after, 24th June 2010, and that the 2G original iPhone was never released in Japan.
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Anyone bringing out an iPhone or, heaven forfend, an iPad at a gokon dating party would get nothing but ridicule (or a punch in the iGob, if I was feeling generous) from me, but regardless, this survey from goo Ranking and probably sponsored by Apple looked at the top twenty dating party applications for the iPhone

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of May 2010 perhaps around 1,100 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Unfortunately, the link to the demographics is broken, so I cannot give any more information that that right now. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Quite frankly, all these games sound rather naff to me, but then again I’m not in the target audience! Have any of my readers tried out any of the below at a real party?
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With Apple’s iPad to go on sale from tomorrow in Japan, this recent survey from Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com takes a timely look at what iPhone and iPod Touch users think about iPhone applications and the iPad.

Demographics

On the 25th of May 2010 800 heavy mobile phone users who were members of the Point On monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, and 25:25:25:25 teens, twenties, thirties and forties.

I’m surprised at the low number of iPod Touch users. Around about 5% might be a fair number for iPhone users alone, but from my observations in the train to work there appears to be more iPod Touch users than 5%. However, Point On Research do seem not to cover the iPhone demographic well, as in other surveys the percentage of SoftBank customers has been low, but I don’t know what would cause a drop (assuming I’m not just overestimating!) in iPod Touch users.

In Q2, the entertainment category probably covers silly trick applications like the multitude of fart apps and the like.
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This recent survey from goo Ranking into the iPhone turned up not only an interesting figure on penetration of the device amongst SoftBank users, but also a pretty impressive high level of desire for Apple’s new iPad.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 27th of March 2010 1,084 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.3% in their fifties, and 12.4% aged sixty or older.

I certainly don’t want an iPad, but I can see it doing quite well in Japan, although the size is just slightly too large for usage on a commuter train, especially with having to hold it up for a reasonable amount of time. Perhaps one of the most popular accessories we’ll see in Japan is a lap stand?

And don’t ask me why one person didn’t know whether or not they had an iPhone…
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A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into mobile devices (the fourth time this regular survey was conducted) found that the iPhone far outsold ASUS’s Eee PC, the top netbook.

Demographics

On the 9th of February 2010 1,080 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 17.0% in their teens, 18.7% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, and 26.6% aged fifty or older.

It is useful to compare the outcome of this survey and the other survey I published yesterday on mini notebook computers.
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I’ve defintely noticed since the iPhone 3GS was released in Japan the number of handsets I’m seeing has definitely increased, but what are people doing with them? This recent survey from Point On Research, as reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at this in a survey entitled iPhone apps.

Demographics

On the 27th of October 2009 800 mobile phone users completed a mobile phone based survey. 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. Note that the below is just the highlights of the survey; the full set of results will be available at a price.

I’m in the US right now, and the iPhone is quite stunningly popular! I suspect the visibility of the device is affected by people fiddling with their iPhone more than people fiddle with other more boring devices, or people are more addicted, or are just showing off. In addition, a French guy took me along to Fry’s yesterday and he picked up an iPod Touch for about 100 euro less than he’d have to pay at home.
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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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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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