Survey Says ...

The iPhone numbers are out, and they are disappointing. In a study conducted with IDC in June, Market Insight predicted that this would be the case.

Here's an excerpt from the joint press release:

The survey, designed to gauge consumer interest in the iPhone, found that only 10% of respondents were interested in paying full price and signing a two-year contract with AT&T, the only carrier currently slated to offer the device. AT&T has stated that it will not offer a subsidy for the iPhone, which will retail for $499 and $599, depending whether the subscriber wants 4GB or 8 GB of flash memory. Nearly 18% of the respondents indicated a willingness to buy the iPhone if it were priced under $299.

In addition to the cost of the device itself, the survey identified the cost of switching carriers as a deterrent to iPhone adoption. Given the widespread use of two-year carrier agreements with large penalties for early contract termination, consumers cannot easily change carriers whenever they want, wireless number portability notwithstanding. About 17% of the respondents indicated that they would buy an iPhone if it were offered by their current mobile carrier.

Mr. Fix It

In an article in today's Wall Street Journal, Pandora's Tim Westergren provides an inside look at ongoing discussions regarding music royalty rates for Internet broadcasters.

Both sides have more incentive to talk after a closed-door meeting with members of Congress last week. The message was, "Fix it," says Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora Media Inc., which allows users to create customized online radio stations. "If you don't, there's a bill waiting in the wings," he said referring to legislation on royalty rates introduced in both houses.

Clock Watchers

This development (which is reported in today's Wall Street Journal) bodes well for Pandora, whose users spend many hours on the site each month.

Nielsen/NetRatings, a leading online-measurement service, will scrap rankings based on the industry yardstick of page views and begin tracking how long visitors spend on Web sites.

The move, expected to be announced Tuesday, comes as online video and new technologies increasingly make page views less meaningful.

Although Nielsen already measures average time spent and average number of sessions per visitor for each site, it will start reporting total time spent and sessions for all visitors to give advertisers, investors and analysts a broader picture of what sites are most popular.

Currently, sites and advertisers often use page views, a figure that reflects the number of Web pages a visitor pulls from a site.