Researching mobile stuff or automotive stuff is pretty easy. You go to Neilsen or IDC or Gartner or whoever and get the report. When you're looking at something where there are no reports, you've got to get more creative. That's not the hard part.
This time around I'm doing some research into the Japanese market, and as I don't speak Japanese, that makes it a bit tougher. I can read some Kanji (Chinese) but so what. That doesn't really help a lot.
But during the course of things, I've seen some pretty bad software. Not just bad, but really bad stuff. Think kindergarten kids on acid with access to a WYSIWYG IDE. It's the kind of thing that H. P. Lovecraft wrote about - things that drive you insane at a glance.
Then again, there are some very cool things happening in some Japanese software that don't happen elsewhere in the software world. They're a bit off-the-wall to start, but within a few seconds you just “get it” and everything is really easy. Easier and faster than in normal Windows applications.
In particular the use of context menus and some drop down menus in some Japanese software really makes things quite fast and easy. They're not standard uses for those controls, but they make perfect sense. I suppose they are just more examples of how some design concepts in Japan really do have some great innovation.
If you're into GUI design, and have an MSDN subscription, try running a Japanese version of Windows and check out some Japanese software. If you look carefully, you'll see some very cool things that the rest of us could learn from.
Cheers,
Ryan