July 15, 2010 - Tokyo, Japan - Research Panel Asia Inc.(RPA, Tokyo, Japan, CEO: Shogo Nakazato) which conducts marketing research in APAC has conducted an original survey in Japan, China and Korea , on the topic of people' s usage and attitude towards smartphone. E-mail is the main stream in Japan while SMS is widely used in China and Korea for mailing function.

Method of Survey

Title	Survey on usage and attitude towards smartphone
Purpose	Comparing the penetration and usage of smartphone in each country
Methodology	Online Research using Research Panel(Japan), 91wenwen(China) and PanelNow(South Korea)
Target	Men and Women of 10's to 30's
Regions	Japan, China and South Korea
Conductor	Research Panel Asia Inc.
Field work period	2010/08/04-2010/08/05
Sample Sizes	900 samples / break down: equally split across country and gender
Questions	Penetration of smartphone Season and the motive of purchasing smartphone Key values in choosing a smartphone to purchase Types of smartphone applications used Scenes and place of smartphone usage Usage of PC before/after purchasing smartphones 15 questions in total

Background

The market of smartphone such as iPhone and Android expands more and more in a worldwide scale. In Japan, while mobile phone shipment volume shows slowdown in growth, the shipment of smartphone rapidly increased at 43% in 2009, and as a recent news, people are still on the waiting list for the iPhone4 which was released on the 24th of June, 2010. In China and Korea, the growth of smartphone market is rapid as well and it is even said that China will be the largest market for smartphone by the end of 2010, taking over the market of USA, which is the largest as of today(*1). Under these circumstances, RPA has conducted this attitude survey in Japan, China and Korea.

(*1)Announced by Pyramid Research in December 2009.

Findings

1. 1) In all three countries, "function"is the most important factor when purchasing a smartphone.
2. 2) For mail function, e-mail is widely used in Japan while SMS is the majority in China and Korea.
3. 3) In all three countries, people use their smartphone at home or when they are on the move, on trains and buses.

Summary of the result

(1) People focus on "functions" rather than design when choosing a smartphone.

Q: What will be the most important factor if you were to purchase a smartphone? [SA: respondents are those who do not own a smartphone but interested in purchasing them]

"Function"was the most common answer as the important factor when purchasing a smartphone in all three countries, for both owners and non-owners. Especially in Korea, 85.9% of non-owners who are interested in purchasing one, showed that they value the functions of smartphone, which is significantly high in rate compared to Japan and China. On the other hand, while "price"is the second common answer in Japan(29.0%) and China(19.8%), only 2.9% of Korean think this is important. In Korea, many models of smartphone are released one after another with various functions and unique features, but the prices are around 800,000(approximately 650 US dollars) won overall for all types, showing small difference with each other. We can consider that this might be the reason why many people do not think price is the most important in Korea.

(2) When mailing with smartphones, E-mail is widely used in Japan while SMS is the majority in China and Korea.

Q:What kind of applications would you like to use? [MA]

Q:What kinds of applications do you often use?[MA]

(*2)In China, Twitter is not accessible.

Regarding the apps and service which people want to use, "E-mail"ranks the top in Japan, "Business Apps"does in China and "Searching on Internet"does in Korea. In Japan, 70% of the respondents answered that they would like to use E-mail function while SMS gathered only 11.7% of vote. In the contrast, the percentage of people who would like to use SMS is higher than that of E-mail (Those who would like to use SMS: China (66%) and Korea(49%)). Among actual smartphone owners as well, in Japan 60% show E-mail service as a function they frequently use, while 25% do for SMS. 64% of owners in China and 51% in Korea answer that they use SMS often, which are as well much higher than those who use E-mail. In China and Korea, SMS is the main function for mailing on mobile phone. In Japan, however, it is not possible to send SMS among different mobile phone carriers, so that made E-mail on mobile phone prevail. The traditional way of using mobile phone reflects in the way of using smartphones nowadays.

(3) In all three countries, people mainly use a smartphone at home and when taking trains and busses.

Q:Where and when do you use (or plan to use) a smartphone? Please select the three most occasional scene.[MA]

People use smartphone "at home"the most in Japan (83.7%) and China (77.0%), followed by "when taking trains and buses", "at office"and "at school". In Korea, 58.3% of people answered they use when they are on trains and buses, followed by "at home", "at school"and "at office". In Korea, with the Wi-Fi(*3) function, usage of smartphones outside of house is getting more and more convenient as Wi-Fi service is widely spread and additionally, a mobile phone carrier(*4) announced that they have a plan to set a Wi-Fi access point in all subway stations in the main cities.

(*3)Wi-Fi is a global association of companies, promotes WLAN technology and certifies products

(*4)KT, the largest telecommunication company in Korea, announced that they will finish setting up Wi-Fi network in all subway stations of Seoul Metropolitan Area, Busan, Daegu, Incheon, Daejeong, by the end of August ,2010