In Japan, 60% have no idea what Android is

With the growing anticipation of the launch of HTC G1, the first Android based mobile device to be released this week in the US by T-Mobile, Japan’s market research firm iShare conducted an online survey of 422 respondents between 20 and 40 years old to measure the awareness of Android in Japan.

The results are very telling and not that surprising. The majority of respondents (60%) have never heard about Android, with another 25.6% knowing only the Android’s name.

Well-known among early adopters and techies Android will face its greatest challenge of winning the hearts of consumers. It will be interesting to see how T-Mobile USA intends to differentiate the first Android device from HTC, a very unimpressive piece of hardware (from a design point of view). It doesn’t have much space for maneuver. The looks and price are often the deciding factors in user’s choice of the mobile phone. And after iPhone, the appeal of smooth Web experience may not be that new and enough to get attention from end-users.

Source: iShare