A hold state change detection apparatus comprising: an acquiring section configured to acquire an output signal of a sensor mounted in a mobile device held by a user; a change detecting section configured to detect a change in a hold state of the mobile device based on the output signal of the sensor; and a hold state judging section configured to judge the hold state based on the output signal of the sensor, wherein the hold state judging section is configured to output a judgment result of the hold state after a prescribed time has passed from a time when the change detecting section detects the change in the hold state and to not output the judgment result of the hold state during the prescribed time from the time when the change detecting section detects the change in the hold state, and during the prescribed time from the time when the change detecting section detects the change in the hold state, information indicating the hold state prior to the detection of the change in the hold state is output; characterized by a pattern storage section for storing a plurality of hold states and reference characteristic amounts obtained by performing a prescribed computation on the output signals sampled in advance respectively for these hold states, in association with each other; and by said hold state judging section comprising a calculating section configured to calculate a characteristic amount obtained by performing a computation that is the same type as the prescribed computation on the output signal of the sensor acquired by the acquiring section; and a characteristic amount correspondence judging section configured to judge the hold state of the mobile device according to the characteristic amount calculated by the calculating section and the reference characteristic amount stored by the pattern storage section; wherein the prescribed computation comprises, for each of the hold states, weighting at least one of an average and a variance of at least a portion of a plurality of axial direction components included in the respective output signal with weighting coefficients, wherein the weighting coefficients are obtained by performing a principal component analysis on said at least one of the average and the variance of said portion of the plurality of axial direction components. an acquiring section configured to acquire an output signal of a sensor mounted in a mobile device held by a user; a change detecting section configured to detect a change in a hold state of the mobile device based on the output signal of the sensor; and a hold state judging section configured to judge the hold state based on the output signal of the sensor, wherein the hold state judging section is configured to output a judgment result of the hold state after a prescribed time has passed from a time when the change detecting section detects the change in the hold state and to not output the judgment result of the hold state during the prescribed time from the time when the change detecting section detects the change in the hold state, and during the prescribed time from the time when the change detecting section detects the change in the hold state, information indicating the hold state prior to the detection of the change in the hold state is output; characterized by a pattern storage section for storing a plurality of hold states and reference characteristic amounts obtained by performing a prescribed computation on the output signals sampled in advance respectively for these hold states, in association with each other; and by said hold state judging section comprising a calculating section configured to calculate a characteristic amount obtained by performing a computation that is the same type as the prescribed computation on the output signal of the sensor acquired by the acquiring section; and a characteristic amount correspondence judging section configured to judge the hold state of the mobile device according to the characteristic amount calculated by the calculating section and the reference characteristic amount stored by the pattern storage section; wherein the prescribed computation comprises, for each of the hold states, weighting at least one of an average and a variance of at least a portion of a plurality of axial direction components included in the respective output signal with weighting coefficients, wherein the weighting coefficients are obtained by performing a principal component analysis on said at least one of the average and the variance of said portion of the plurality of axial direction components.