Smartphone photography and printing

MMD Labo recently conducted a survey into smartphone photography and smartphone photo printing.

I fall into the two or three photos per month, usually food photos that never gets further than Google Map reviews, although I do occasionally upload to my personal Instagram account quality photos like this:

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A post shared by Ken Y Nicolson (@ken_yn)

I’ve printed out my own smartphone photos exactly once; it was for my father-in-law’s funeral, and rather than pay 30,000 yen or so for a professional memorial photo for him, we found one on my smartphone and I printed it off at a nearby convenience store for the grand total of 50 yen, and framed it in a photo frame we found lying about his flat…

Survey results

Q1: Which of the following photographic devices do you have? (Sample size=2,000, multiple answer)

Android smartphone	50.6%
iPhone smartphone	45.1%
Compact digitial camera	42.4%
Tablet	28.7%
Digital SLR, mirrorless SLR	16.3%
Feature phone	14.4%
Film camera	7.7%
Instant camera	6.8%

Q2: Do you take at least one photo per week on the photographic devices you have? (Sample size differs by device)

Device	Take weekly photos
iPhone N=901	75.4%
Android N=1,012	60.9%
Tablet N=574	36.1%
Feature phone N=287	31.0%
Instant camera N=136	27.2%
Film camera N=154	20.1%
Digital SLR, mirrorless SLR N=325	17.8%
Compact digitial camera N=848	11.4%

Q3: Where do you save the photos you take on smartphones? (Sample size=1,717, multiple answer)

Smartphone itself	89.5%
SD card	32.7%
PC hard disk, external disk	29.7%
Cloud	26.8%
CD-ROM, DVD-ROM	13.6%
Picture saving application	12.2%

Q4: How many photos do you have saved on each device? (Sample size differs by device)

Location	Average
PC hard disk, external disk N=510	2,353.6
Cloud N=461	1,663.3
Smartphone itself N=1,536	1,032.9
CD-ROM, DVD-ROM N=234	1,019.6
SD card N=561	924.7
Picture saving application N=210	635.6

The following question was answered by the 1,717 people who answered in an unreported question that they took at least two or three smartphone photos per month. Note that from these 1,717 people 800 were chosen to answer the questions from Q6 onwards.

Q5: Have you ever printed smartphone pictures? (Sample size=1,717)

Yes (to SQ)	48.6%
No	40.8%
Didn’t know I could print	10.7%

Q5SQ: Where did you print smartphone pictures? (Sample size=834, multiple answer)

Home printer	46.9%
Convenience store device	22.7%
Photo shop, electrical store self-service printing terminal	21.6%
From smartphone to internet-based print service	11.2%
From PC to internet-based print service	9.1%
Camera shop, electrical store service counter	8.8%
Supermarket, drug store service counter	4.4%
Stationery shop service counter	2.6%
Other	0.5%

Next, a smaller sample of 800 people who took at least two or three smartphone photos per month were asked the following:

Q6: Have you ever used a photo book service? (Sample size=800)

Yes	16.1%
No	83.9%

Q7: How did you send 2021 New Year greetings? (Sample size=800, multiple answers)

Nengajo postcard (to SQ)	44.6%
LINE	35.4%
Email	10.0%
Telephone	7.4%
Twitter	7.1%
SMS	6.3%
Instagram	6.3%
Facebook	4.9%
Other	0.1%
Didn’t send New Year greetings this year	23.1%

Not surprisingly, physical postcards were more popular with older people, and LINE (Japan’s WhatsApp, basically) more popular with the youth.

Q7SQ: How did you print, order your New Year nengajo postcards? (Sample size=357, multiple answer)

Printed from PC on home printer	50.1%
Ordered online from smartphone	9.0%
Bought pre-printed postcards	8.1%
Ordered online from PC	7.3%
Handmade my own postcards	6.4%
Ordered from physical photo shop	3.4%
Printed at convenience store	2.8%
Ordered from electrical store, camera shop	2.5%
Ordered from stationery shop	2.2%
Ordered from supermarket, drug store	1.4%
Other	6.7%

Q8: Do you tidy up your smartphone photos and videos to avoid filling up your device? (Sample size=800)

Yes, frequently (to SQ)	10.4%
Yes, when I remember (to SQ)	56.3%
No	33.4%

I’m not quite sure how this sample size is 357; it should be 533, I think.

Q8SQ: How do you tidy up your photos? (Sample size=357, multiple answer)

Delete unneeded data	54.4%
Keep only the good ones from a batch of similar photos	33.4%
Move photos to somewhere with more space	32.1%
Move important photos to a more permanent location	16.1%
Print out photos and delete the data	9.0%
Other	0.4%

Demographics

Between the 5th and 7th of February 2021 2,000 members of the MMD Labo monitor group aged between 15 and 69 years old completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Furthermore, from Q6 onwards, 800 people from the original sample who took at least two or three smartphone photos per week were chosen for further questions.