A popular topic of discussion these days is the Galapagosation (it sounds better in Japanese) of the Japanese phone market, how handsets has evolved to suit the Japanese market (or is it vice versa?). This recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, their 53rd regular look at mobile upgrade needs showed that many of the desired features are those popular in Japan alone.
Demographics
Between the 28th and 30th of September 2010 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-owning members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.6% of the sample were female, 1.2% in their teens, 15.9% in their twenties, 32.5% in their thirties, 27,4% in their forties, and 23.0% aged fifty or older.
I’m driven by handset price too, with that as the main barrier to me upgrading. Maybe around Christmas I’ll buy last year’s model at a sensible price. I have my heart set on a smartphone, but my wallet says no, however, as the flat rate packet price, as I discuss every time I post about smartphones, is still too high…
As there’s nothing decent to graph, here instead is a video showing how it’s a dog eat dog (stewpot set) market out there…
Research results
Q1: Which mobile carrier do you use? If more than one, choose the main one. (Sample size=1,000)
NTT docomo 49.7% au by KDDI 27.2% SoftBank 19.5% Willcom 3.6% E-Mobile 0.0% Q2: Select which of the following are important when upgrading your mobile phone. (Sample size=1,000, multiple answer)
Handset price 70.9% Design 61.0% Functionality 35.9% Size 31.4% Body style (clamshell, slider, etc) 28.4% Weight 25.1% Service provider 24.3% Camera spec, functionality 23.5% Talk time cost 22.2% Display 20.9% Battery life 19.0% Additional functionality (television, GPS, etc) 18.8% Maker, brand 17.6% Data packet charge 15.8% Ease of connecting 12.3% Text entry functions 11.4% Services supported 11.1% Voice call quality 10.2% Built-in memory 9.4% Data transmission speed 9.0% Other 2.3% Nothing in particular 2.3% Q3: Select which of the function from the list below whose presence or absense is important when upgrading your mobile phone. (Sample size=1,000, multiple answer)
Memory card 28.4% One Seg terrestrial digital television reception 27.5% Infrared transmission 25.8% Water resistant, waterproof 23.8% Music playback 15.7% FeliCa (Osaifu Keitai electronic cash) 14.6% GPS 14.3% Bluetooth 8.6% Wireless LAN 7.2% Full browser 7.1% FM radio reception 5.5% AM radio reception 3.7% Document viewer (Excel, etc) 3.3% Electronic compass 3.0% Digital radio reception 2.4% Skinnable 2.1% Analogue television reception 1.4% Other 1.6% Nothing in particular 31.6% Q4: Select which of the services from the list below whose presence or absense is important when upgrading your mobile phone. (Sample size=1,000, multiple answer)
Flat-rate data plan (pake-hodai) 43.2% Decomail 12.7% Navigation 12.6% International roaming 9.5% Full-quality ring tunes 8.3% Ring tones 8.2% Flash 6.4% Video delivery 4.7% Push to Talk 0.5% Other 0.5% Nothing in particular 42.8%
3 Comments
David · March 29, 2011 at 21:01
Who is upgrading their phones? More than half of those surveyed are over 40 years old. For that reason I question the relevance of the survey results, given that in most countries it is people in their teens to early 30s that are the ones most regularly upgrading their phones. I’ve worked in mobile phone sales for most of my working life and struggle to remember a client over 40 that even knows what InfraRed is. Are middle aged Japanese more technically aware than my customers?
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