The Telecommunication Carrier Association (TCA) and all five Japanese mobile carriers (docomo, au, Softbank, e-mobile, willcom) announced on April 16th, that the usage of filtering services on mobile phones reached an all time high of 5.7 million subscribers. That’s an increase of 780.000 in the last 3 month and an increase of 2.3 million in the last year. Young Japanese under the age of 18 are therefore unable to see content which is on the blacklist. However parents can decide and individually activate sites at their child’s phone if they think its appropriate.
The eBook market in Japan keeps growing. Japanese who were famous for their high consumption of printed media use more and more digital media. Today 82% of all eBook are read on mobile phones. According to the ‘Keitai Hakusho 2009’ (impress R & D) the mobile e-Book market was 290 million dollars in 2008. 65% of all eBooks were mobile mangas (comic books) and mostly consumed by young men. For Japanese women mobile novels are really popular now.
The latest surveys conducted by Japan Internet.com K.K. and Research Plus show that the mobile novel market is changing very quickly. Two surveys, the first in October 2008 and the second in March 2009, focused on mobile novel and Japanese women in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
Compared to half year ago the usage of mobile novels went up 9%. Today 24.3% read mobile novels on a regular base, compared to 15.3% in late 2008. The most popular mobile novel site is still ‘Mahou no island’ with a market share of 38%. But that’s a big loss compared to a half year ago. Many new novel sites appeared in late 2008 and now have a combined market share of 35%.
Most content of ‘Mahou no island’ and other ‘mobile novel’ sites is produced user-created content. The satisfaction with this content deceased a little bit (-2%) but is still very high (58.9%). By far the most popular mobile novel genre is still ‘romance and love’ with 61%, followed by ‘mystery’ and ‘fantasy’ with only 8%. Research Plus even calls the new media ‘mobile novels’ the new ‘Harlequin’, referring to Harlequin Enterprises Limited, the world leading publisher of series romance and women’s fiction.
That is one of the results from a survey conducted by P+Nest Research Institute on two of their mobile partner sites. Within 1day 1001 female and high school and junior high school students voluntarily participated in a mobile survey about personal homepage usage.
In Japan young people use the word ‘hompe’, the short word for homepage, not only for homepages but also for profile services and SNS on the mobile web. Users can write user profiles, diaries, bulletins and even novels and contribute to each other in real time.
The usage of ‘hompe’ is extraordinarily high in Japan, especially for young girls. Asked about “how many of their friends and classmates have a ‘hompe’?”, 37.7% of female junior high school students and 47.9% of high school students answered: “all of them”. Everyday 45.6% of junior high school students and 48.6% of high school students spend at least 1h updating their own sites or writing real time contributions to other sites. The purpose of writing ‘hompe’ is slightly different between female junior high and high school students. 45.1% of junior high school students’ intention is to “communicate with their friends”. Contrarily female high school students seem to get more self-centered and individual after they turn 16. Their purpose for writing on ‘hompes’is to keep “individual records about themselves” (48.6%). Communication is still the main purpose. But while it’s more like active “chatting” for junior high students, high school students tend to write it more like an egocentric ‘blog’. They write about themselves as an ‘idol’ (star) and want others to be interested in them. Their participation in others gets more passive.
The most popular mobile ‘hompe’ service site is homepe ‘＠peps!’; most used profile sites are ‘Chip!!’ and ‘zentraku profile’
honeyee.mag is one of the most exclusive lifestyle magazines in Japan. Hiroshi Fujiwara, the founder of this magazine, gathers around some of the most creative people of metropolis Tokyo and reports about the latest trends in fashion, lifestyle and design. Recently a special edition of his magazine was published focusing on iPhone usage in Japan (‘About the iPhone at Hanimagu’ – Everything You Always Wanted to Know About iPhone – But Were Afraid to Ask). Many famous creatives like the musician Shinichi Osawa (Mondo Grosso), creative director Koichiro Tanaka (e.g. Uniqlo iPhone app producer) and many others designers, photographers, creative directors etc. where interviewed and an iPhone user survey was conducted. The following data is only mirco data but it gives some interesting insights in the interests and user behavior of Japanese iPhone users.
1. Fast buyers – Japanese wanna have it first!
When the iPhone was first introduced to Japan in July 2008, long lines waited for days in front of the Softbank shop in Omotesando. As reported in the “iPhone Sales in Japan” article on March 3rd, sales and interest in iPhone as a mobile phone decreased drastically after the first month. The survey from honeyee.mag confirms that situation clearly: 84% of iPhone users bought their iPhone in the first month after its release; only 16% purchased it in the following 7month.
2. Burdens: Carrier or Email change required
“Mobile Number Portability” was introduced in October 2006 and allows to keep the same number when changing mobile carriers. In case of the iPhone only 33% used that possibility. Different to other mobile phones the iPhone didn’t support address book and data synchronization with Japanese phones. Also a new iPhone-only email address, that was different to normal Japanese email addresses had to be taken. Many problems occurred, messages couldn’t get send or received, were broken or blocked by other carriers. Knowing of the different nature of the phone you can say that those who purchased the iPhone were mostly Apple fans or gadget geeks, who bought it also they had ongoing contracts with other carriers.
3. In Japan the iPhone is ‘only’ a second phone
Japan is the most advanced mobile society in the world and Japanese handsets are still world leading. Due to the fast development of new phones and the fast changing rate of handsets, usability, content and service improved very much over the years. The iPhone was a big revolution in the West and enhanced mobile communication on 3G networks worldwide. But in Japan the iPhone was technically no revolution at all. At the time of its introduction about 90 million of 103million mobile phone users in Japan already surfed on 3G networks for years, had high-end handsets for several generations and were used to many features the iPhone doesn’t have (QR-code reader, “osaifu keita” [mobile payment], free mobile TV [1seg] etc.). Especially the carrier menu and rich Japanese content, Japanese were used to have for many years, are missing. “It’s a nice gadget to brows PC websites and play games but it can’t be compared to a Japanese phone”, was a common statement. Therefore Japanese use the iPhone as a second device, more like a PDA than a mobile phone. For Japanese the iPhone is “hard to use as a mobile phone”. Only 55% of iPhone users in Japan use it as a main phone.
4. Japanese like special colors
Another point the survey reveals is that 72% of Japanese iPhone users possess a “black iPhone”. That is not surprising because only the 16gb model is available in white and the price for the 16gb version was very high (80.520yen = 823$). Considering that, you can say that Japanese tend to buy a special colored white phone when they purchase a 16gb version. Japanese like to have a variety of designs and colors to choose from. In Japan all carriers introduce 3 times a year 10 to 20 new phones in a huge variety of colors. So Japanese are spoilt to chooses an individual color and design for each phone they purchase. Never the less there are also a lot of Apple fans (Macintosh, iPod etc.) in Japan. Many Japanese like the simple design of the iPhone but would like to have more color and design variations like the aluminium body of the new Macbook or the color ranges of the iPod nano series.
5. iPhone = ‘Expensive gadget’
The above mentioned high purchasing cost of the iPhone (till the “iPhone for everybody” campaign) and the expensive flat rate plans for PC site browsing, compared to other Japanese phones, gave the Japanese an image of the iPhones as an expensive gadget. Additionally 45% of iPhone users think that the monthly charges are high. Those who felt that the prices are high also pointed out, that especially the 3G package prices increase extremely when they travel abroad. 33% of the questioned people use the iPhone abroad. Also the Japanese iPhone contracts by Softbank have special price plans for international usage, some users have additional contracts in other countries. Those who don’t have additional contracts and didn’t inform themselves about the costs, report that they were shocked about the extrem high prices for data transfer. When abroad, map applications like Google Maps are one of the most used features.
6. iPhone users are Mac users
81% of iPhone users in Japan are using Macintosh computers. Of course the conducted survey specialized on creative people who are more likely to use Macintosh computers for work or at home. But if you are used to the Mac OS it’s very easy to adapt to the interface of the iPhone and you are more likely to have interest in the Mac OS-based iPhone. For the average Japanese mobile phone user, who mostly don’t even have a computer at home it’s difficult to use the computer-depending iPhone. Contrary most people in the “hanikamu” community (creatives featured or working in fields touched by the honeyee.mag) are usually very busy creative people. The usage of MobileMe, that very useful service to sync different devices over the air, is very high in this work field. Although the charges for MobileMe are seen as too expensive, 62% are active users and will keep on using this service also if the price doesn’t change.
7. Case protection is low
Worldwide most of smart phone users protect their phone with a case. For Japanese mobile phones have already a unique design and color and should be build sold. Phone stripes (“keitai straipu”), photo stickers (“purikura”) and attachable glitter (“kirakira shiru”) are used to personalize the device. The idea of putting a phone in a case is very new in Japan. About 40% of Japanese don’t like the idea of hiding the beautiful design of the iPhone. That’s a very high ratio compared to other countries.
8. QWERTY-Keyboard stays unused
For foreigners in Japan it’s a pain in the ass to write English on a Japanese phone or to search net web. There is nothing like a T9 text input method and also the latest touch screen phones don’t have a software qwerty-keyboard. In Japan 62% of the creatives prefer the Japanese “ten key pad” instead of the full keyboard (Probably the ratio at normal users is much higher). Japanese are used to the “ten key pad” from previous phones and the buttons of the full keyboard are seen as too small. It normally takes some time to get used to the touch keyboards of the iPhone, but Japanese who try it out only once, experience many key misses and are frustrated very quickly. For that reason the rumor spread quickly that the iPhone is hard to use for Japanese.
9. iPhone = iPod with internet and phone functions
The appeal of the iPhone is that it’s “an iPod that can also be used as a phone”. It is very usefull to download songs directly over wifi or puchase them in the mobile iTunes on the go! 84% of Japanese iPhone users use the iPhone to listen to music on a regular base. But some complain that the screen freezes sometimes when listening to music while browsing the net on safari.
10. ‘BlackBerry No!’ – ‘G1 Yes!’
When you talk about smart phones a year ago you primarily talked about the BlackBerry first. The high interest in the iPhone in Japan should implement also a high interest in the latest Black Berry Storm, just released abroad, which is now also equipped with a touch screen. But actually 62% of Japanese iPhone users conducted in the survey don’t show any interest in the BlackBerry. Contrary to the relative low interest in the Black Berry there is a high awareness in the Android based G1 from T-mobile, that just came out in America. 62% are interested in the new Google Phone G1. The G1 seems to be a better value due its additional hard keyboard, touch screen functionality – no multitouch function like the iPhone – and the support of MobileMe. But concerning about the design the iPhone is much more attractive to Japanese users than the G1.
11. 100% Satisfaction
The Japanese users are totally satisfied with their iPhone. As an entertainment tool for music, video and games, as a business tool for company mails and data transfer, the iPhone is a gadget with the perfect balance between work and play for Japanese. Also the many available applications, rich content and different ways to play around, Japanese creatives love the way of usage of the iPhone. It hasn’t been long since the iPhone was introduced to the Japanese market. Now everybody is keen on seeing the next developments of the iPhone. Quit all of iPhone users are happy with it and want to keep on using the same kind of device. 95% of iPhone users will defintely buy the new edition of the iphone as soon as it comes out. Also the current iPhone is enough for most of the users, they wish to have a bigger memory, a copy and paste function and a higher resolution camera in a new iPhone.
The Japanese cell phone market is hard to crack for western telecommunication companies. That’s something that also Nokia, the biggest mobile carrier in the world, had to experience and finally pull out of Japan completely in late November 2008.
Japan is the most advanced mobile phone market in the world and the Japanese customers are used to be provided with the latest technology handsets and innovative content on a regular basis. Functionality and usability are on the highest level and every season Japanese can choose out of a huge range of newly designed phones, fulfilling all needs of very specific user groups. The times are long gone when cell phones where mainly communication devices. Most Japanese rarely even use their mobile phones for calling.
Japanese “Keitai” (cell phone) are every day lifestyle items that represent the user’s personality. Japanese literally live with their mobile phones. They wake up in the morning by their phone’s timer, pay their bus or train ticket to school or work with their phone, write SNS and blogs in the train, watch TV in their break times, pay for their lunches or do mobile shopping. On the way home they play mobile games, download music or videos, read the news or surf the mobile internet. Many Japanese even sleep with their phones in their hands.
Japanese have a high brand awareness and interest in quality design and lifestyle products from overseas. Exactly these factors made Apple’s iPod a top seller in Japan. When in July 2008 the iPhone finally arrived to Japan, people build long lines and waited for days in front of the Softbank shops, just to be one of the first to posses an iPhone. In spite of high handset and data plan prices, sales were good for some weeks and people rumored that the iPhone could make it in the Japanese market. Also there is no offical data available, it is said that Softbank sold about 400.000 iPhones in the first 3 weeks. But then, after just some weeks the euphoria was gone and therefore the sales went low. Very low!
The iPhone lacked too much of the standard features of Japanese phones. Beginning with the hardware, the iPhone’s camera has only 2 mega pixels, doesn’t have auto focus and macro functionality, necessary for QR code scanning and the positioning of the camera makes it difficult to make pictures of yourself. Also the screen resolution is way behind the time in Japan, battery life is low and movies can’t be taken. Also incompatibility with flash, which is preinstalled on 90% of Japanese phones (flashlite), the lack of applications in Japanese language, no Emoji (emoticons) support and the missing copy & paste function didn’t appeal to the Japanese customer. Besides false marketing, rumors about broken handsets, guarantee issues and bad service took the rest to make Japanese think the iPhone is no use for the Japanese.
Then Softbank put a lot of effort and money in commercials, increasing the awareness of the iPhone in Japan. Firmware updates fixed some software issues and with the external 1seg adapter lacking hardware features were tried to be fixed. Also iPhone commercials are seen anywhere, nor Softbank nor Apple released any figures or information on iPhone sales in Japan. And that can’t be seen as a sign that the iPhone sells well here. Then on Feb 25th Softbank announced a new campaign called “iPhone for everybody” to increase iPhone Sales in Japan. Starting on Feb 27th, lasting till may 31st, subscribers for a new 2 years contract will get the 8gb iPhone completely for “free”. The 16gb model will be extremely reduced to one eights of the former price of 80.520yen (823$) to 11.520yen (115$). In addition Softbank reduces the prices for flat rate data plans from 5.985yen (62$) to 4.410yen (45$) per month. If this drastic price reductions doesn’t help the iPhone sell in Japan, nothing will. In economic times like these also Japanese consumers, who keep showing a high consumption rate through the long time of recession in Japan, might be finally convinced, attracted by that cheap offer and help the iPhone survive or even boost in Japan. Let’s see what the next month bring.
