世論 What Japan Thinks

Widgets are now even finding their way onto mobile phones (now that would be an interesting survey!), but this survey from RealWorld RealResearch and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at widgets (or gadgets) on computer desktops.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of January 2009 1,020 members of the RealResearch monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.6% of the sample were male, 7.3% in their teens, 27.4% in their twenties, 30.9% in their thirties, 25.4% in their forties, 7.5% in their fifties, and 1.6% aged sixty or older.

I looked a while ago at widgets according to MyVoice, which might be a useful cross-reference for this survey.

I don’t use widgets as they clutter up the desktop; I keep all my add-ons under control in toolbars. Perhaps if I invested in a wide-screen monitor I could afford to reserve some space, but then again I cannot think of any widgets I actually want to use! However, at work around half my colleagues run a desktop calendar widget, however as far as I can determine it doesn’t feature (or nobody uses) any schedule reminder functions.

In Q2, you’ll note it interesting that an RSS reading widget did not appear explicitly on the list. Although RSS is not that popular in Japan, I would have thought it merited its own category rather than, perhaps, being lumped into the “site or service latest information” category. I’d also have thought music players would be more popular.
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Gadgets and widgets on the desktop annoy me; I have Google Desktop installed, but I keep it parked in the task bar as when it is active it either just gets hidden when I run applications maximised, or the frequent updates distract me when trying to do work in other windows. Additionally, Opera widgets just didn’t do anything for me. This survey by MyVoice looks at what the average Japanese internet user thinks of these desktop applications, widgets and gadgets.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 5th of June 2007 13,376 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a web-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 19% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 14% in their fifties or older.

I’m not surprised that calendars come out on top – about half the people in my office run some ancient-looking calendar app on their desktops, but I’ve not seen anyone with anything else. I did once try out a Post-It Note™-like app or two, but as mentioned above for other application types, they just didn’t appeal to me at all.
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