Japanese are "most connected" mobile users

TOKYO: Consumers in Japan are the most engaged with a wide variety of mobile activities such as surfing the internet and downloading content, according to a new multimarket study.

A report from ComScore MobiLens found 75% of its Japanese sample utilised their phones to browse the web, access apps or stream material.

They were considerably ahead of the 44% who did the same in the US, and the 39% following suit in Europe.

However, only 40% of Japanese wireless subscribers routinely sent texts via SMS, a figure rising to two-thirds of Americans and 82% of Europeans.

The explanation, comScore said, lies in long-established and highly advanced mobile internet services like NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, which makes emailing "on the go" both quick and simple in Japan.

While the proliferation of smartphones has made this pastime much more common in the US and Europe than previously, services in Japan remain superior at present.

In evidence of this, 54% of the Japanese user base regularly send and receive electronic messages from their phones, falling to 28% of their US counterparts and 19% of Europeans.

Further differences incorporated an appetite for taking photographs on mobiles among the Japanese, on 63%, a habit not shared to a corresponding extent in either the US or Europe.

Some 22% of Japanese contributors also watched TV and video using these portable devices, measured against totals in the low single digits across the Western regions assessed.

European mobile subscribers were more interested in listening to music, registering 24%, and playing games, reaching 24%.

Similarly, 59% of the Japanese mobile population accessed mobile web browsers and just over 42% used applications, compared with 34% and 31% respectively in the US and 26% and 25% in Europe.

Other trends from the report include the fact the Japanese are the most likely to check the weather on their phones, while Americans displayed the greatest enthusiasm concerning visiting social networks on the move.

Data sourced from Wall Street Journal; additional content by Warc staff, 11 October 2010

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