iPhone 12 purchasing opinions in Japan

This quite comprehensive survey was published just a few days before the iPhone 12 went on sale, but it’s out now, so please excuse my slightly late translation of MMD Labo’s look at iPhone 12 purchasing opinions.

I’m quite anti-Apple after a few bad experiences with Mac computers; I understand their appeal but I dislike their user interface philosophy of ease-of-use over control.

I’m also extremely ambivalent on 5G as a consumer technology; coverage in Japan is almost non-existent outside a tight area around major train stations, and adverts with all these holograms suggesting flawless telepresence are just unrealisable pipedreams. The extremely low latency is good, though, but I doubt the average consumer will really notice.

Research results

Q1A: Will you buy the new iPhone 12? (Sample size=1,102, by device)

	iPhone users N=550	Android users N=552
Plan to buy	15.6%	3.1%
Investigating buying	30.0%	12.9%
Won’t buy	54.4%	84.1%

Q1B: Will you buy the new iPhone 12? (Sample size=720, by carrier)

	Docomo users N=314	au users N=219	SoftBank users N=187
Plan to buy	6.1%	6.4%	12.3%
Investigating buying	20.4%	18.7%	23.0%
Won’t buy	73.6%	74.9%	64.7%

I’m not sure how the numbers here are derived. The sample was 1,102 people, so Q1A is correct, but 382 people disappear in Q1B, and similar happens with Q5B. There are of course a number of carriers other than the big three of Docomo, au and SoftBank, but these make up only about 10% of the general phone-owning population, and even if you factor out people on feature phones I find it difficult to accept that about a third of MMD Labo’s sample were on the smaller carriers. However, I don’t have any alternative explanation for these numbers.

Q2: Which models from the iPhone 12 series are you investigating buying? (Sample size=339)

	iPhone users N=251	Android users N=88
iPhone 12	72.9%	70.5%
iPhone 12 mini	45.0%	36.4%
iPhone 12 Pro	31.5%	25.0%
iPhone 12 Pro Max	24.3%	12.5%
Don’t know yet	14.7%	20.5%

Q3: Which specific model specs from the iPhone 12 series are you investigating buying? (Sample size=339)

	iPhone users N=251	Android users N=88
iPhone 12 128GB	30.7%	25.0%
iPhone 12 64GB	23.5%	27.3%
iPhone 12 256GB	18.7%	18.2%
iPhone 12 mini 64GB	18.7%	15.9%
iPhone 12 mini 128GB	17.1%	13.6%
iPhone 12 Pro 128GB	13.9%	8.0%
iPhone 12 Pro 256GB	10.8%	6.8%
iPhone 12 mini 256GB	9.2%	6.8%
iPhone 12 Pro 512GB	6.8%	10.2%
iPhone 12 Pro Max 128GB	8.8%	3.4%
iPhone 12 Pro Max 512GB	7.6%	5.7%
iPhone 12 Pro Max 256GB	8.0%	3.4%
Don’t know yet	14.7%	20.5%

Q4: What features of the iPhone 12 series do you find attractive? (Sample size=339, multiple answer)

	iPhone users N=251	Android users N=88
5G support	47.0%	44.3%
Spec	39.0%	40.9%
Size	35.1%	33.0%
Camera functions	30.7%	45.5%
Display	29.1%	35.2%
Design	26.7%	38.6%
Price	23.1%	36.4%
Storage	20.7%	22.7%
Face ID	16.7%	18.2%
Dual SIM	16.3%	17.0%
Range of colours	17.1%	13.6%
Other	2.0%	2.3%

Q5A: Will you subscribe to a 5G plan from the 3 big carriers when you purchase an iPhone 12 series device? (Sample size=339, by device)

	iPhone users N=126	Android users N=45
Yes	22.2%	22.2%
Investigating if I will	51.6%	53.3%
Already have 5G plan	1.6%	4.4%
Don’t know if I will	19.0%	13.3%
Don’t understand 5G	1.6%	2.2%
Won’t buy	4.0%	4.4%

Q5B: Will you subscribe to a 5G plan from the 3 big carriers when you purchase an iPhone 12 series device? (Sample size=339, by carrier)

	Docomo users N=64	au users N=41	SoftBank users N=46
Yes	17.2%	7.3%	31.9%
Investigating if I will	53.1%	68.3%	46.8%
Already have 5G plan	1.6%	2.4%	0.0%
Don’t know if I will	17.2%	17.1%	21.3%
Don’t understand 5G	4.7%	0.0%	0.0%
Won’t buy	6.2%	4.9%	0.0%

Demographics

Between the 15th and 19th of October 2020 1,102 members of the MMD Labo monitor group who owned an iPhone or Android smartphone completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was aged between 15 and 69 years old, but no further demographic breakdown was provided.