世論 What Japan Thinks

Mobile Marketing Data Laboratories recently conducted a pair of parallel surveys into smartphone map app usage and smartphone schedule app usage.

Demographics

Both surveys were conducted between the 18th and 21st of December 2013. The map survey had 556 respondents, and the schedule one 560. All the respondents were pre-screened as smartphone users, and for the map survey 232 people, or 41.7% were iPhone users, and the remaining 324 people (58.3%) were Android users. No further demographic information was provided.

I don’t use maps on my private phone, and my wife serves as my calendar! She has both a smartphone and a standard feature phone, but she manages her schedule on the feature phone only, mainly because the battery life is better and it can do things like switch itself on when alarms ring.
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Just before the New Year Mobile Marketing Data Laboratory published a survey of the actual use of smartphone apps in 2013, with this report focusing on the questions regarding game app usage; other questions were regarding social network apps and what genres of apps people stopped using. I hope they later release that data also.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of December 2013 560 members of the MMD Labo monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All the sample were 20 years old or more, and all had smartphones.

I reckon my most-used genre is games, and Candy Crush Saga in particular. SNS, Google+ specifically, comes a close second, however.

All the game links below lead to the Android version, if there is one. Only two titles appear to be iPhone only.
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Mobile Marketing Data Labo have been producing some very good surveys recently, and this one – actually pair – is no exception, a look at how satisfied people who purchased smartphones this year are, with the survey being conducted separately for both iPhone users and Android users.

Demographics

For both surveys, between the 25th and 27th of November 2013 1,000 Android purchasers and 1,000 iPhone purchasers completed a private internet-based questionnaire. No further demographic information was presented.

One trend I’ve heard about informally is that there is a movement away from smartphones to owning two devices; a feature phone for voice calls and a tablet for web browsing. I’ve yet to see a survey on this aspect, but hopefully MMD Labo can cover this topic in the coming year.
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Mobile Marketing Data Laboratories recently conducted a survey into a minor social problem that has grown along with smartphone usage, that of using one’s smartphone while walking.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 15th of November 2013 558 members of the MMD Labo monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All the people were smartphone users, and the demographics say that the sample was aged between 20 and 59 years old, but looking at Q1 I can see that 18 and 19 year olds, and those 60 or older were also questioned. No further demographic information was provided.

Talking of walking with smartphones, Japan Times recently stretched the definition of “news” rather too far with the author of this piece suggesting that negative press about walking with smartphones was a plot by Japan Inc. to spoil the iPhone 5s and 5c launch.

I don’t believe in coincidences. From Sept. 20, NTT Docomo, Softbank and au all began selling Apple’s newest-model iPhones, and I suspect the big difference is that foreign brands are threatening to expand their dominance of the market. So behind this wave of complaints is wounded national pride and concerns that Japanese firms are being nudged out of their own (very lucrative) market.

What a load of nonsense, but sadly reflective of the current editorial bent of newspaper, and also not the worst nonsense they have printed under a “news” headline.
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This survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, perhaps gives one a hint as to how addicted people are to their smartphones, as this look at smartphone recharging finds many burning through their batteries.

Demographics

Between the 28th of October and the 3rd of November 2013 1,082 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.8% of the sample were male, 13.8% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 17.2% in their forties, 14.8% in their fifties, and 17.5% aged sixty or older.

I manage to get three or four days out of a charge of my smartphone, but that is due to me only using it as an alarm clock, for occasional email and a couple of minutes of surfing per day.
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Mobile Marketing Data Laboratory recently published a very interesting “fixed point” survey regarding mobile handset purchasing. I’m not sure exactly what a “fixed point” is; it might be referring to this being a regular survey?

Demographics

Between the 11th and 15th of October 2013 995 members of the MMD Labo monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All of them had purchased a mobile phone between April and September of 2013, and all were aged over 18 but under 65 years old, but no further demographics were given.

Note that regarding Q1SQ2, docomo only sells the newer iPhones 5s and 5c, yet even though they only came out on the 20th of September, they made up nearly 20% of docomo’s sales in just 5% of the half-year measured! They also made up nearly 25% of SoftBank’s sales, but that could be explained by people holding off upgrading until the new model came out.
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Mobile Marketing Data Labo recently conducted their second regular survey into using one’s personal smartphone at work, or BYOD, Bring Your Own Device, as it is commonly known as.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 22nd of August 2013 1,002 members of the MMD monitor group who used a personal smartphone in a business setting completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The only demographic information provided was that they were all aged between 20 and 49 years old.

Our company’s policy is that BYOD is forbidden in general, but with special exceptions for reading email via a thin client-style application that ensures no messages are ever saved locally. However, this survey shows that there are very few companies with formal policies in place, which I strongly feel is a disaster waiting to happen.
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japan.internet.com reported on a subject that I know more about than I can tell you, that of smartphone-ready home appliances, in a survey conducted by goo Research.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 25th of September 2013 1,082 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private intenet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were male, 13.7% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 17.1% in their forties, 14.6% in their fifties, and 17.1% aged sixty or older.

Here’s a demo from last year’s CEATEC (Japan’s biggest consumer electronics show) where Sharp showed off their take on a Roomba.

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Life Media’s Research Bank recently conducted a survey into the free chat app LINE. The report linked to on japan.internet.com is just some highlights, but the full report is available on Life Media’s site.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 26th of August 2013 2,000 members of the Research Bank monitor group who were smartphone owners completed a private internet (most likely via smartphone) questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:0 male and female, and 20:20:20:20:20 for the age groups of teens, twenties, thirties, forties and fifty-pluses.

I avoid LINE because I worry about the fact that it slurps your address book up to their servers, and anyway I prefer Google Hangouts, not that I use that much anyway.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by goo Research into weather forecasts, and in their report they focused on smartphone weather-related apps.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 30th of July 2013 1,066 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.5% of the sample were male, 14.0% in their teens, 15.3% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.9% in their forties, 15.0% in their fifties, and 17.4% aged sixty or older.

I don’t have any weather apps on my smartphone – they are a waste of packets, and furthermore my wife sends me a photo of the weather forecast on the television at lunch time and early evening. However, I’ve recently got a company phone, and the Google Now local weather forecast is useful, but I suspect once the novelty factor wears off I’ll stop using it.
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