世論 What Japan Thinks

Here comes the fortieth regular cellphone upgrade needs survey by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 6th and 10th of October 2008 exactly 1,000 cellphone users from the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.4% of the sample were male, 2.1% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 34.1% in their thirties, 26.8% in their forties, and 18.5% aged fifty or older.

In Q4 one might be surprised by seeing that just 7.6% of people rate Flash support as important, but I wonder how much of this is due to lack of awareness rather than lack of interest? The newest docomo phones now have decome-anime (decoration mail animation), which is basically simple Flash authoring, inserting your own message into an animation, similar to features currently only available through online greeting cards.
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We’re now two months into the iPhone era in Japan, so this 39th regular mobile upgrade needs survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com took a closer look at some of the issues surrounding this device.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of August 2008 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research online monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.2% of the sample were female, 2.0% were in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 40.8% in their thirties, 24.6% in their forties, and 14.3% aged fifty or older.

Note that for Q1 and Q2, for people with multiple providers or multiple phones, they answered for their main one only.

Apple on 0.3% for this survey is a difficult number to interpret. If you take the aproximate figure of 100 million mobile phones in Japan, this represents about 300,000 users, but figures suggest there has been about 100,000 iPhones sold in Japan. The age group of respondents is biased toward the iPhone demographic, and almost all of them own home computers, so it would suggest a bias, but how much is difficult to predict.

Q4 is a difficult one to interpret. Just over half of those surveyed do not welcome some of the phones; in English being not welcome has negative connotations, but it may be more correct to say that people are just not bothered.
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The summer seeing the launch of DoCoMo’s new 906 and 706 series, and new ranges from SoftBank and au that don’t fall under a nice name umbrella, and I’ve heard a rumour or two about a new phone from Canada or somewhere made by I think Microsoft and called the zPHune, but perhaps I misheard. Anyway, this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at this as part of their 38th regular survey into mobile upgrade needs.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 19th of June 2008 exactly 1,000 mobile phone users from the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were female, 1.9% in their teens, 15.2% in their twenties, 38.0% in their thirties, 28.6% in their forties, and 16.3% aged fifty or older.

I’ve got no intention of upgrading right now, although when I get round to it (after my winter bonus?) the only important feature will be One Seg digital terrestrial television support, and I’ll be buying a summer model then as they’ll be affordable. However, I’m not sure if I’ll actually watch TV on a mobile, but I’d like to have a phone that gave me the option, just in case.
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