When April and I were at HotMobile07 presenting the mobile video user study results, I sent an email to Susie Wee saying that we were in Tucson, the presentation was looking good, and that we were fired up to give the talk. I left out the part about the margaritas and the 30 foot waterslide. She is my boss.
Susie responded (with her usual lightning speed) and she had an interesting story. She had been talking about the results of this study with our Japanese colleagues and she received some puzzled looks. They had a very different perspective on our conclusion that people watch mobile video in bed. Apparently this doesn't apply in the Land of the Rising Sun...
Here's some text from Susie's post on this.
Traditional Japanese households are different. Traditional Japanese households are small and have futons instead of beds (though the use of western-style beds is increasing). Japanese futons are thin mattresses that people sleep on at night and fold up and put away during the day. So, the observation that people like to "watch mobile video in bed" doesn't make sense to most Japanese people. Actually, the concept of "kids playing on the bed" doesn't seem to make much sense to them either.
Someone has also added an interesting comment to her post with a perspective from Indian culture. Perhaps lounging around in bed is more of a Western or American activity than I realized.
What's that? We need a Japanese mobile video study? Do they have waterslides?
Flickr photo by javica
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