「人間用途」

English translation: personal

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

Japanese term or phrase:	人間用途の
English translation:	personal
Entered by:	Timothy Takemoto

09:29 Jun 9, 2007

Japanese to English translations [PRO]
Marketing - Telecom(munications) / mobile phones

Japanese term or phrase: 「人間用途」

Hello, this term comes from this sentence -

2009年の携帯電話稼動数は9310万と予測され****「人間用途」の「稼動数」はほぼ飽和した*****と見なしてよい。したがって、今後は稼働数よりも、ARPU（月間電気通信事業収入）が重要な指標となる。

and it refers to trends in the mobile telephone market.
basically I think it means that there will be a saturated market, with a phone for everybody, by the year 2009, thus companies will try to compete using ARPU (average revenue per user).

However, I'm not sure how to put the first sentence into English, or what a good translation for 「人間用途」 might be.

Any ideas?

Is it that the handset market is saturated? All potential customers now have a telephone, thus no more can be sold / sales are very low?

Thanks a lot,

Calum

CalumR KudoZ activity Questions: 59 (none open) Answers: 132 Japan
Local time: 18:30

personal

Explanation:
I agree with the above, but I think that we generally use the word "personal" with the emphasis upon "for persons" rather than private.

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Note added at 1 day2 hrs (2007-06-10 11:54:24 GMT) Post-grading
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As you say, a number can't be saturated, only markets can. But I wonder how you are going to connect to the previous phrases where the number of mobile phones is given.

Selected response from:

Timothy Takemoto
Local time: 18:30

Grading comment

Thank you very much for your answer - most helpful. I think both answers are good, but "personal" fits into this context quite nicely, so I'm going to go with that...I was wondering about what to write for this sentence - Do you think that "the market for mobile telephones for personal use will be more or less saturated" is acceptable, given that "market" is not specifically mentioned? I figure that a number cannot be saturated, so what actually is? I'd really appreciate hearing your opinions! Thanks again,
Calum
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

personal

Timothy Takemoto

for human (to human) communication

sigmalanguage

Answers

17 hrs confidence:

personal

Timothy Takemoto
Local time: 18:30
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

15 hrs confidence:

for human (to human) communication

Explanation:
I take this 人間用途 as human to human communication. When we talk over a mobile phone, that is human to human (人間用途).

The implication of this expression is that there are other (non-human) uses of mobile communication technology. An example in my mind is a rain gauge fitted with a mobile communication device. It periodically rings up a computer system (perhaps housed in a meteorological agency's office) and transmits rainfall data.

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Note added at 1 day4 hrs (2007-06-10 13:45:30 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

As to your question about 飽和, what about "稼動数 has reached a saturation level/point"?

(If you are serious about this question, however, I suggest posting it as a separate question.)

sigmalanguage
Japan
Local time: 18:30
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Japanese
PRO pts in category: 4

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thank you very much for your answer - most helpful. I think both answers are good, but "personal" fits into this context quite nicely, so I'm going to go with that...I was wondering about what to write for this sentence - Do you think that "the market for mobile telephones for personal use will be more or less saturated" is acceptable, given that "market" is not specifically mentioned? I figure that a number cannot be saturated, so what actually is? I'd really appreciate hearing your opinions! Thanks again, Calum

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