世論 What Japan Thinks

The sixth regular survey by goo Research into mobile devices, reported on by japan.internet.com, produced evidence that compared to the fourth time the survey was conducted smartphones have got more popular.

Demographics

Between the 28th of June and the 1st of July 2010 1,090 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, and 27.6% aged fifty or older.

I wonder next time they do the survey if the tablet PC category will see a jump due to iPad purchasers? Furthermore, I also expect smartphones to jump due to the iPhone 4′s release, assuming there isn’t a recall.

My interest in smartphones has waned again – I’m seeing a huge number of new models coming out in the UK and US with various packages of hundreds of minutes and hundreds of megabytes of data for under 3,000 yen, yet here I pay about the same for 30 minutes or a megabyte…
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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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In the US and the UK I get the distinct impression that the netbook market is in a rush for the bottom, but here in Japan, premium-priced mini-notebooks seem to be the norm according to this recent survey from Media Interactive reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Over the 16th and 17th of February 2010 1,000 internet users completed a survey, although the means of gathering this sample was not described. 53.1% of the sample were male, 0.8% in their teens, 13.8% in their twenties, 31.3% in their thirties, 28.3% in their forties, 17.9% in their fifties, and 7.9% in their sixties.

I’ve now had my MSI Wind for about four months; I picked it up for under 300 dollars in the US, and it works great as a second PC that I can use when my wife’s busy with the main computer, or for stuffing in my rucksack whenever I have a solo train ride with 20 minutes or more to kill.
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I find the figure of one in four people usually carrying a standard notebook computer a quite frankly unbelievable figure from this survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, the third regular mobile devices survey. I have also translated the first and second surveys.

Demographics

On the 26th of November 2009 1,095 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.5% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 15.6% in their forties, and 28.0% aged fifty or older.

Since the last survey the percentage of both notebooks and PSPs being carried has increased, which the report suggested was due to Windows 7 and PSP Go launches. However, the number carrying smartphones was down 0.7%, but I suspect that might be as much a statistical blip as an indication of a definite trend.
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Here is the second installment of a very interesting series of surveys from goo Research into mobile devices, as reported on by japan.internet.com. I translated the first installment last month.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 18th of September 2009 1,095 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16/8% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 27.2% aged fifty or older.

I used to be extremely excited about the new Sharp NetWalker – what’s not to love about the form factor of an electronic dictionary (A5-sized), running Linux, 10 hour battery life, high resolution touch screen, etc, etc. Well, after a play with it in the shops, the keyboard are closer to buttons than keys so have a dreadful feel, there’s a huge dead area around the screen, the touch pad is microscopic and the mouse buttons are under the left hand, 10 hours battery life is measured with minimum brightness and no sound, and the biggest killer, 45,000 yen price tag (40,000 yen if you shop around), or about 450 US dollars or 280 UK pounds. For less than that I can pick up any number of netbooks, and I’m off to the US at the end of the month so $320 for an Acer Aspire One delivered straight to my hotel room from Amazon sounds like a plan.
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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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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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It’s difficult trying to work out the meaning from the results of a questionnaire into Japanese people’s understanding of English computer-related technical terms, so I’ll just present the results of a survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into computers.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 23rd of March 2009 1,062 members of the goo Research monitors completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.5% of the sample were male, 17.1% in their teens, 18.8% in their twenties, 19.3% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

That definition of UMPC is not really what I thought. I wouldn’t have said it had to be a tablet, but a thumb-driven keyboard and looking like a seriously-shrunk laptop with built-in mobile phone, with the WILLCOM L4 being the prime example that springs to mind. Incidentally, I’ve played with that beast and it seems to be trying to run Vista in far too little RAM, as even after ten minutes it was still busy whirring the disk trying to start up! I gave up on it at that point.

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