世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1][part 2][part 3][part 4]

Macromill Research recently published the results of a massive yet fascinating study into smartphones, looking at both smartphone users and those wanting to buy. This will be published in four parts.

Demographics

Over the 17th and 18th of February 2011 412 smartphone owning and 206 non-smartphone owning but thinking of buying members of the Macromill monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The 412 smartphone users were split into 290 male and 122 female, 73 in their twenties, 169 in their thirties, 111 in their forties, and 59 aged fifty or older. Furthermore, 209 owned an iPhone, 159 Android-based phones, and the remaining 44 had other OSes or didn’t know. Of the 206 non-smartphone users, 113 were male and 93 female, but their ages were not listed.

I am in the second demographic, but the unlimited data packet plan price puts me off. If I were to buy right now, I’d probably go for the cheapest smartphone at the moment, the LG Optimus Chat with the slide-out keyboard, although I suspect the low-spec screen would annoy me! Secondly, a slightly higher-resolution Samsung Galaxy Tab might do the business, if it meant I could ditch the notebook.
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According to Japan’s biggest comparison shopping site, kakaku.com, battery life is the one point where most smartphones fail badly. To try to quantify this, goo Research conducted a survey, reported on by japan.internet.com, into smartphone batteries.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 7th of February 2011 1,081 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.4% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I was completely dissatisfied with my old mobile phone’s battery, but after recently trading up to another standard feature phone I’m more than impressed by the one week recharge cycle, involving much email, less than a minute of calls, and a little bit of surfing here and there.
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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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iShare recently took a look at smartphones, including a look at what non-users thought smartphones might be like to use.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 21st of September 2010 406 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.2% of the sample were male, 31.8% in their twenties, 30.3% in their thirties, and 37.9% in their forties.

Entertainingly (I’m easily entertained) one of the smartphones mentioned was the Brack Berry.

In Q1, I’m not sure how much the 22.7% of men carrying a smartphone reflects reality versus the kind of demographic that uses CLUB BBQ’s services, as it does seem a little high to me.

Q1SQ5 is a bit difficult to interpret; mail ease of use implies the ability to use emoji and the like, thus women have a worse impression of smartphone email. Good usability implies, I think, the overall user experience, whereas being easy to use implies how well each individual application functions.
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Although this recent survey by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com showed Apple way out ahead in the smartphone market in Japan, this gap will surely narrow in the near future, not least thanks to Sharp’s soon-to-come iPhone killer.

Demographics

Between the 6th and 8th of October 2010 1,086 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, and 27.4% aged fifty or older.

Sharp’s new IS03 is getting heavy advertising coverage right now, although it does look more like a promotion for Usian Bolt than a cell phone advert. The reason to suspect it might be an iPhone killer is first that Sharp have a track record for producing smartphones even before the term was invented (the W-ZERO3 series mentioned in Q1SQ1) and have made other innovations like the Netwalker (although it priced itself out of the market), but second and more importantly, the IS-03 is an iPhone for the Japanese market, with both One-Seg digital television decoder and FeliCa electronic cash chip on board. Furthermore, the carrier, au, have a much better image than Softbank, so there would be less resistance to switching carrier just for the device. It needs a sexier name than IS-03, however!
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Thanks to events such as the demos in Iran last year, the awareness of Twitter has gone through the roof, from around 12% to 95%, according to this survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 24th of April 2010 1,077 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.0% in their teens, 17.8% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.8% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

I’ve used Twitter once or twice on my non-smartphone using the special Japanese iMode gateway, but due to stupidly high data costs in Japan (about 1 yen per kilobyte – yes, not megabyte) it costs me about 150 yen to just log in and view my home page!
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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 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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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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This month’s regular look at mobile phone upgrade needs (the 46th time it has been conducted) by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com had interesting results regarding two big recent developments in mobile phones, smartphones and high pixel-count cameras.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 22nd of May 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private intenet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were female, 2.0% in their teens, 16.7% in their twenties, 33.7% in their thirties, 28.4% in their forties, and 19.2% aged fifty or older.

This summer’s models brings cameras with up to 10 million pixels, which is getting to be overkill, as packing more pixels more densely actually can give worse results as one starts to get interference problems. In addition, without a decent lens you’re not going to be taking very good photographs anyway, and looking at the camera on the linked web page, the big round thing looks just for show as there is another tiny circle inside which looks to be the business end.

The number interested in smartphones is pretty low, but I suspect that they have an image of being foreign market-designed phones that feature few of the essential Japanese functions such as emoji, One-seg television, and smartcards. Up to now only Sharp with their SH-04 and related models have produced that sort of smartphone, but with many domestic manufacturers rushing to Google’s Android, expect to see many fully-functioned domestic smartphones this winter or next spring, assuming the carriers don’t request to the manufacturers that they avoid too much openness.
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