世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s a very interesting survey from Point On Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into reading news on mobile phones.

Demographics

On the 10th of Novermber 2009 800 mobile phone users completed a mobile pone-based questionnaire. 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.

I’ll add a caveat that as well as the survey being for mobile phone users only, these mobile-only surveys tend to favour heavy users rather than just the average mobile phone user, so there is a degree of bias here.

I can get headlines for free from my mobile phone, but I never find it worth the bother – on the way back home from work I can just peer at other people’s evening papers, and anyway I usually get home in time to see 10 or 15 minutes of news, so I can quite happily live without the latest headlines on my mobile.
Read the rest of this entry »

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.
Read the rest of this entry »

Most mobile phones in Japan these days support not just static wallpaper, but also Flash-based animations, although the report by japan.internet.com on this survey from Point On Research into mobile phone wallpaper didn’t actually give any information on the uses of such animations, as the focus was on still pictures.

Demographics

On the 29th of September 2009 exactly 800 members of the Point On research monitor group completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. 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.

Q1 indicates a very curious demographic; the usual percentages for au and SoftBank are about 30% and 20%, but here we have a huge variation. Does their questionnaire web site not correctly operate on many SoftBank phones? Did SoftBank fail to deliver the request to participate in the survey?
Read the rest of this entry »

This is a subject I’ve looked at a number of times, but I always find the results interesting. The subject is mobile phone coupons, counducted by Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 15th of September 2009 exactly 800 members of the Point On Research monitor group completed a mobile internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

The only mobile coupons I use are for Mister Donut, although recently they’ve been pretty poor, 20% off a second doughnut or the like. And they’ve also ended their half-price ice coffee promotion.
Read the rest of this entry »

About the only proper punctuation mark I use in my mobile emails is a question mark, and this recent survey from Point On Research, as reported on by japan.internet.com, into mobile phone email found that I’m in the majority in my smiley habits.

Demographics

On the first of September 2009 exactly 800 members of the Point On Research monitor group completed a mobile phone-based private questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were male, 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

I don’t really use much decomail, not even the animated emoji, as my phone’s a bit old and the interface for accessing them is pretty awkward, so I stick with emoji most of the time.

Oh, and if you need some kaomoji for your phone or PC, please visit my huge collection of Japanese emoticons and smilies.
Read the rest of this entry »

This recent survey from Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile spam found that almost half of all Japanese are getting multiple mobile spams per day.

Demographics

On the 21st of June 2009 800 members of the Point On Research monitor panel completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fiftise.

Note that in May a similar survey found a smaller percentage of people getting mobile spam email, but goo Research’s panel is primarily PC internet-based, whereas this sample is for mobile users, who tend to be heavy users, thus more exposure to sites that might be inclined to spam.
Read the rest of this entry »

Despite a law being passed to forbid the use of mobiles while driving cars or riding bicycles, even the casual observer will see that the law is not being adhered to. To try to quantify how much, Point On Research conducted a survey reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile phone use while on the move.

Demographics

On the 16th of June 2009 800 members of the Point On monitor group who were heavy users of mobile phones completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 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.

From my casual observations as a pedestrian, I am not terribly surprised at these numbers, although I am surprised by the amount of people admitting that they are doing it.

One could argue in Q1SQ2 that perhaps many of the phone talkers are using hands-free equipment, I suppose, but sadly it doesn’t distinguish between the two options.
Read the rest of this entry »

I haven’t seen anything on SNS for a while, so I was pleased to see japan.internet.com report on a survey conducted by Point On Research into mobile Social Networking Services.

Demographics

On the 8th of June 2009 exactly 800 people successfully completed a private mobile phone internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were male, 25.0% in their teens, 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, and 25.0% in their forties. Note that because this is a mobile phone-based sample, which judging by previous surveys means there will be an over-representation of heavy mobile users, so the absolute percentages of mobile SNS users should be viewed in that light; the original text does indeed describe the sample as being “heavy users”.

GREE especially is heavily-advertised on television, and it is the game aspect that they push, not the social aspect. However, the games they show (mostly a fishing one and some ugly virtual pet) are particularly off-putting to me and make me want to avoid the place! I’d normally add in a link to the adverts on YouTube, but for some reason I cannot find them!
Read the rest of this entry »

With just about every phone available in Japan and built within the last two year able to support Flash (the iPhone being one notable exception), this survey from Point On Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looking at mobile phone wallpaper reveals a significant percentage of people using Flash even as their mobile’s idle screen background.

Demographics

On the 16th of March 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the Point On Research monitor group completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and feamle, 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties. For this survey 47.4% of the respondents were with au by KDDI, 42.0% with docomo, 10.5% with SoftBank, and 0.1% with other carriers. This split seems odd to me – 45:35:20 is the usual ratio, and their own monitor demographics page illustrates a 39.7:43.0:33.4 ratio, so I don’t know what is going on here!

Regarding the headline, overall it is just 6.3% of the total sample prepared to lay out cash for just a background, but looking at it as a quarter of a quarter sounds somehow larger! However, I would add a note of caution that many may not be directly paying, but instead may have a monthly subscription to a themed site (like a Sanrio or Disney site full of static and dynamic backgrounds, email templates and emoji icons, etc) with an all-you-can-eat or points-based model.

My phone just has a boring old static picture.
Read the rest of this entry »

In these tough economic times, one way of saving money is to collect coupons, so this recent survey from Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at this very topic of mobile phone coupons.

Demographics

Over the 1st and 2nd of March 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the Point On monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split exactly 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 50.0% in their fifties.

Just at the weekend, and just in time for this survey, I got two mobile coupons, one for 100 yen off a doughnut and coffee set at Mister Donuts, and the other for a free men’s bath salts from the rather feminine chain of pricey bric-a-brac Afternoon Tea.

I’m not aware of any of the coupon sites mentioned in the last question, but that might be a good topic for Nihon Hacks or Frugalista Japan to investigate.
Read the rest of this entry »