世論 What Japan Thinks

The 50th installment of the regular goo Research mobile upgrade needs, reported on by japan.internet.com as usual, found that price was the most important factor, which goes some way to explaining the 25% drop in mobile sales last year.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 29th of January 2010 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-owning members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.3% of the sample were male, 1.9% in their teens, 12.8% in their twenties, 36.9% in their thirties, 29.8% in their forties, and 18.6% aged fifty or older.

I met a couple of guys from Nokia this week and they were carrying their latest model of smartphone, the N900, and I want one! I hope Japanese manufacturers can bring out a smartphone that works and addresses customer needs, not the carrier’s wishes.
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Looking at the alphabet soup of new models for this autumn and winter from docomo and SoftBank, one could be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed, with about 20 new handset each. Seeing how widespread this feeling was was one of the questions asked in the 49th regular upgrade needs survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 20th of November 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone using members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 1.3% in their teens, 14.3% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, 27.7% in their forties, and 23.4% aged fifty or older.

I’m overwhelmed by the number, especially as they all have roughly the same price and feature overload. If there was an entry-level phone with no One Seg television, a low-end camera, and no touch screen, flashing lights and other gimmics, I’m sure it could sell.

I’ve also got no intention to buy this season, partially as I’m waiting to see how well the Japanese manufacturers tackle making Android phones for the domestic market, and partially because I spent my toy budget on a netbook.
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This month’s 48th regular survey into mobile phone upgrade needs by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looked specifically at what features people look for in a new mobile phone.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 11th of September 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research monitor group completed an online questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were female, 1.0% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 34.7% in their thirties, 29.5% in their forties, and 19.0% aged fifty or older.

The original Japanese article’s headline was that four in ten teenagers want a waterproof mobile phone, but because the statistic is completely accurate according to this sample, it is highly inaccurate, as there was only ten teenagers in the whole sample, so the margin of error is vast! However, the trend for older people being more interested in water resistance is valid, and is perhaps a reflection on clumsiness increasing with age!

In Q2, one obvious (from a Western phone user point of view, I think) missing feature is synchronisation with calendar or address book applications; Bluetooth support suggests just wireless headphones to me as few Japanese computers come with built-in support. Unfortunately, there’s no “What USA Thinks” or “What UK Thinks” web site for me to cross-reference against, although if any of my readers have data, I’d love to hear it. Also in Q2, you’ll note that the iPhone has only four of the top ten features and none of the top three, whereas most of the higher-end Japanese phones have at least seven of them.
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Despite the iPod and iPhone being a reasonable success in Japan, Apple are not seeing the benefit in terms of Mac sales, according to this survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by goo Research into home computers, with a look in particular at the upcoming Windows 7.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of July 2009 1,086 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, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

I use Windows Vista only at home, which does work well for everything I want to do, so I don’t see any reason why I should bother upgrading to Windows 7, especially given that since I run the Ultimate version as it’s the only one to support multiple languages, the upgrade price will be pretty high, I suspect.
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goo Research recently conducted their 47th regular mobile phone upgrade needs survey.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 26th of June 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were female, 1.8% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 34.0% in their thirties, 26.8% in their forties, and 18.9% aged fifty or older.

I’ve had a look at this summer’s models, and the first one to catch my eye was the Toshiba T-01A offered through docomo, but it doesn’t fit into my hand and feels cheap and flimsy, and it’s not up to spec for Japan; it looks like a rebadged US phone, but apparently it isn’t. Next is the new HTC HT-03A, the very first Google Android phone for Japan, which is extremely comfortable to hold, but again it is missing most of the standard Japanese features like One Seg television, FeliCa electronic cash, and emoji. I also had a look at the Biblio also from Toshiba and au, touted as an electronic book reader as well as a phone, but I was struck by how heavy it felt. It looks like I’ll be keeping my very old P702iD for a few more months until one of the Japanese manufacturers comes out with a proper Android phone with all the add-ons we expect to see in Japan.
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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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Once again we have the results of the regular monthly surveys from goo Research and as reported by japan.internet.com into mobile phone upgrade needs, with this being the 45th time around.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 17th of April 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone users from the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were female, 1.1% in their teens, 19.1% in their twenties, 37.2% in their thirties, 24.2% in their forties, and 18.4% aged fifty or older.

As a comparison, the fortieth regular survey, translated here, also looked at what was important when choosing what to upgrade to. There design was the key feature, but now it is price, suggesting that the current financial uncertainties are weighing heavy in potential upgraders’ minds.
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I’ve taken the plunge and moved WJT up to WordPress 2.7. Hopefully everything is OK, but if you notice anything funny, please shout!

Welcome back to normal service from What Japan Thinks, and my apologies again for being offline for so long. We’ll start off the year with a survey connected with one of my most popular themes of 2008, a look with japan.internet.com at goo Research’s 42nd regular monthly survey on mobile upgrade needs, with a question on touch panels.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 19th of December 2008 exactly 1,000 mobile phone users from the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.0% of the sample were female, 2.1% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 36.6% in their thirties, 27.6% in their forties, and 15.3% aged fifty or older.

The figure of 0.3% Apple users reflects about 300,000 people given the estimate of about 100 million contracts, but given that on one hand there is a lot of multiple phone ownership and on the other iPhone users may be more likely than average to be the sort of people to participate in online surveys, it’s difficult to extrapolate from the three iPhone owners in this survey.

Note that it’s not clearly stated in the survey, but looking at the wording of the questions in Japanese, there is a possibility that the survey was conducted via mobile phone internet, so the questions may actually apply to the phone currently being used to answer the questions.
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It’s time for another installment of the goo Research mobile phone upgrade needs survey, the 41st in the series of monthly looks at people’s upgrade plans. This time one question looks at the Autumn and Winter 2008 models, with all three major carriers having just released, or being in the process of releasing, new models.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 14th of November 2008 exactly 1,000 members of the goo Research online monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were female, 1.1% in their teens. 18.9% in their twenties. 38.3% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, and 16.5% aged fifty or older.

In Q1 it is interesting to note that SoftBank is down a couple of percentage points compared to the average level reported, however this might just be a sampling blip for this survey.

I currently have no plans to upgrade, although on Sunday I might look at a shop I know that should be selling this summer’s models at knock-down prices as most of the new phones from docomo are minor cosmetic revisions of the summer phones; Panasonic has added a two-way keyboard to go from a P906i to a P01-A, Sharp an 8 megapixel camera differentiating their SH-01A from the SH906i, and NEC have a fancy ball joint on their N-01A.

I have my eye on the Sharp SH-04A smartphone, not out until February or March 2009, as I was tempted to jump ship to Willcom for their Sharp 03 earlier this year. However, I’ll have to wait and see how they price it, but I’m not terribly hopeful of getting a decent deal.
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