Here's a few interesting stats from a survey recently conducted in Europe. These aren't specifically about the iPhone, but given that smartphones relied on buttons almost exclusively before Apple's handheld came along (and nowadays, everyone's bragging about their touchscreen technology), a temperature-taking on what people think of touchscreen controls is more or less a referendum on what people think of Apple's influence.

At least in France, Germany and the UK, reactions are mixed. While 38% of those surveyed say they were planning to get a touchscreen on their next mobile phone, only 47% of people who already owned a touchscreen said they would get another one. In other words, less than half of touchscreen owners thought they'd stick with the technology on their next purchase. Apple remains an anomaly -- both HTC and Apple have a higher amount of current customers planning to stick with their touchscreen interface (with the full numbers being released at a conference later this month), but the fact remains: current touchscreen users aren't anywhere near 100% on living button-free forever.

Especially as a gamer, that makes a lot of sense. Touchscreens are great for a lot of things -- they allow for limitless flexibility in the kinds of interfaces on offer, and especially with multi-touch, a lot of the controls on the iPhone are extremely intuitive (you automatically know now that pinching equals zooming, and so on). But as nice as touchscreen is, there are a lot of functions on mobile phones, from adjusting volume or changing music tracks on a phone out of sight in your pocket, to hitting exact button controls while twitch gaming, that work much better with tactile feedback. Steve, as he always does, made a big deal about the iPhone being a one-button interface, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see future iterations of the iPhone include either a few more buttons, or, even better, a few more haptic interface technologies.

The mythical Apple tablet is back in the news again, this time in the results of a new study that shows where the pricing "sweet spot" will need to be for Apple to attract users who would traditionally buy an inexpensive PC netbook instead.

Consumer electronics shopping site Retrevo.com surveyed 753 Americans distributed across age, gender, income, and location, asking them what they'd be willing to pay for an Apple tablet computer. While 68% of Mac users said that they'd willingly drop $600 or more on a tablet, only 36% of PC users said that they'd pay that much.

What does that tell Apple? If they want to continue to make inroads into the PC market, particularly in the netbook sector, the new device should have a price point around $600 so that price is not an issue for PC users. Retrevo's Gadgetology study also noted that Apple has already lost potential sales to early adopters like iPhone users, 59% of whom said they either already own or plan to purchase a netbook this year.

Not only is pricing of the Apple tablet key to making it a runaway success, but the study results show that Apple needs to get this device out the door as quickly as possible to capture the slower adopters who are planning on making a netbook purchase in the next year.

The study does not answer the question on how many dissatisfied netbook owners would make the switch to an Apple tablet, but we can only hope that Retrevo asks that question soon.

A new NPD report says that 12% of US households now own a Mac of some kind. That's a nice gain -- just a year ago, back in 2008, the same stat was at 9 percent, so Apple has made nice jumps just in the last 12 months. But before you start crowing about Apple's impending superiority, here's another fact that might have you thinking twice: of those households, a whopping 85% also own a Windows computer. In fact, 66% of those Apple households actually own three computers or more. So many more Apple owners own more than one computer, and of those, it's pretty darn likely that one of them is still a Windows PC. That's certainly the case at my house (I own a Mac mini, a MacBook, and a PC), and I bet it's true for lots of you Mac users as well.

There is good news for Apple in terms of iPods however: 63% of Apple-owning households also have an iPod on hand, though I'd question whether that's chicken or egg: do they own an iPod because they owned a Mac or vice versa? Additionally, Apple users are more likely to have navigation systems in their cars, they're more likely to earn over $100,000, and they're likely to have twice as many gadgets as other users -- 48 gadgets on average for Mac owners, compared to 24 for the average consumer household.

While those stats are interesting, none of them seem super surprising -- Apple has a reputation for high-end gadgets, and so anyone who seeks out their products is going to pick up some other gadgets as well.

One of my favorite apps is Night Stand [iTunes Link]. This app contains a variety of different themes (clock displays) and has an alarm, pretty basic but I use it every day. Last night when I ran it, I found that there was a new clock theme named Glow for in-app purchase. It looked interesting but there was no way to find out the cost without hitting the 'buy' button which I did. Luckily, before it was purchased, a confirmation screen came up with the price of US0.99. This was a bit surprising since US0.99 was the full price of the app which already came with six themes.

This got me thinking about whether in-app purchasing will work or not, or if there is any rhyme or reason to pricing? I wouldn't buy one-sixth of the value of an app for full price and I wonder who would? Last week we ran a story on how in-app buying is not working out so well for Pangea. I wonder if it's working out for anyone?

My feeling is that iPhone apps are looked upon differently than full Macintosh applications. They are cheaper and tend to do one thing only. Night Stand is a clock, it doesn't purport to be more than be a clock. So what should a new clock theme be worth?

I've started viewing apps as casual purchases and at the price I don't expect more than one thing, which if done well, is worth the buck. So I'm not seeing the value of highly priced in-app sales. I can see the reason for some expensive apps charging for major functionality increases, such as Navigon when they added a $US20 live traffic option to their $US90 Mobile Navigation app, but that seems to be the exception and not the rule.

I would guess that extra gaming levels would be an expected revenue source, but I just don't see the majority of people spending enough time with a game app to run out of levels and buy more.

Take the poll below and then comment on your feelings on in-app purchasing. Will this turn out to be something big, or is it just another solution looking for a problem?

$80 on apps? I didn't think it was that much, but after going over estimates in my head, that sounds about right, actually. A survey of 1200 App Store customers estimates that we've spent about $80 on applications so far, with an average of about 65 applications per customer. There's a little weirdness in those figures though: they also say that 65% of the apps downloaded were free, and that the average app price was $1.56. There's some extra information hidden in there: if 65% of the apps are $0, and the average price is still up above $1, that means people are spending way more than $1 on the apps that they do buy. More research seems needed there.

There's another surprising figure as well: of all the 1200 customers surveyed, altogether they only had about 15,000 unique apps on their iPhones. When you compare that to the latest figures of about 65,000 apps, that means you've got about 50,000 apps (definitely the majority) that are completely untouched by these customers. Of course, 1200 is a tiny sample when you're talking about the millions of iPhones sold overall, but if that is in fact a representative sample, that means that there are many, many more apps than people have actually downloaded and tried in iTunes.

Not hard to believe -- with iPhone developer numbers in the hundreds of thousands, tons of trashware on the store, and the relative ease it takes to crank out an app, it's no surprise that you've got way more apps than people interested in trying them. But then again, isn't that the way we want it?

A recent customer survey (of only 200 customers -- what are these surveys getting away with only 200 respondents?) claims that the iPhone 3GS has a 99% satisfaction rate. A full 99% of 200 polled iPhone customers claim that they are satisfied with their purchase, while 82% of them claimed they are "very satisfied." That's higher than previously, too: previous versions of the iPhone got a 73% satisfaction rating. You're probably not surprised by this, but guess what? People love their iPhones.

What don't they love about them? 8% said the phone wasn't compatible with their company's IT infrastructure. 41% still say the battery life isn't long enough for their tastes. And a little company called AT&T has drawn the most ire: 55% of respondents say the AT&T network was the worst feature of the iPhone 3GS. So there you go. This just in: ten of eleven Twitterers I just surveyed do like ice cream. That survey is probably just as shocking as the iPhone one, which is not much.

Still, quite a deal Apple has. Your product has almost unanimous satisfaction from customers, and the worst thing about it... is the fault of a completely separate company. Good deal indeed.

As if it isn't getting bad enough with the iPAD / iTablet rumors, now book retailer Borders has been adding to the rumor mill.

Numerous TUAW readers including Jennifer, who supplied the screenshot below, have received a marketing survey from Borders about using Digital Reading Devices (also known as e-readers or ebook readers). Hidden among the responses about Kindles and Sony Book Readers was the response "I plan to buy an Apple iPAD (large screen reading device) this year." Lest any of our readers think that this is just a doctored screenshot, we did receive multiple unique full-screen shots from several readers. This can mean one of three things:

1. The company performing the survey for Borders knows something about an upcoming Apple tablet device
2. The survey company is clueless and loves operating off of rumors and innuendo
3. The iPAD was thrown in there just to see if anybody would fall for it

The survey also refers to the iPod touch as the "iTouch", so I'm pretty sure that #1 is probably out of the realm of possibility. Still, it's fascinating to see just how pervasive this rumored device actually is!

Thanks to everyone who sent in this tip

Keeping an eye out to the we-think-we-hope imminent economic recovery in the US, survey purveyor ChangeWave is seeing a bit of an bump in anticipated overall corporate PC purchases; in particular, the Mac-buying numbers are up. This month, 9% of responders say they expect their companies to buy Mac laptops in the next quarter, and 7% expect Mac desktop purchases -- a 1-point and 2-point uptick from the previous month's survey.

ChangeWave's methodology emphasizes the expectations of buyers, so it can drift away from the actual reality of purchasing budgets, but it does help measure the attitudes of corporate users. Separate and apart from business purchases, there's another Apple product that's resonating with personal buyers; the other ChangeWave survey published this week shows enormous consumer demand for the iPhone 3GS, with 44% of the respondents who plan to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days expecting to buy themselves an iPhone.

[via Ars Technica]

Fortune has the results of an AdMob survey up, and they're pretty surprising -- Apple has apparently taken over 59% of smartphone traffic on the Internet, and in the mobile category in general, they've got a giant 43% of 'net traffic surveyed. But there's another side here: the report doesn't just point out that Apple accounts for the lion's share of mobile 'net traffic, but it states that smartphone traffic, and specifically the iPhone in general, hugely overshadows the actual sales numbers. The iPhone has 8% global market share, but accounts for 65% of HTML traffic. And smartphones in general overshadow their sales to a lesser degree: smartphones represent about 12% of mobile device sales, but AdMob calculates them at around 35% of their traffic last month.

What does this mean? AdMob suggests it's a phase -- right now, because we're so early in the development stages of this platform, mobile web makes up the main chunk of traffic. But in the future, we may go through applications to get data, or use push notifications, and/or come up with other, more streamlined ways to get information out to mobile devices. But for now, iPhone and iPod touch users are still browsing the web, and as a result, they are accounting for way more traffic than their sales hint at.

Businessweek has posted a list of what they call the top 50 most innovative companies in 2009, and guess who is sitting right at the top of the list. Sure enough, it's our favorite computer maker -- according to the survey, taken by "senior executives around the world," Apple is number one, and the reason listed by 47% of respondents is the products. Not that surprising, no? From the iPhone to the unibody MacBooks right up to the new Shuffles, Apple's products ooze new concepts and features and ideas.

Then again, Microsoft comes in at number four, and Wal-Mart is not far behind at number 10, and I don't know too many non-executives who would call those companies out for being "innovative," necessarily. But then again, both of them are being recognized for their "process," not their actual products. In terms of product, Apple is followed by Nintendo (no arguments there), Blackberry's RIM, and then Nokia.

So maybe Businessweek is just asking the wrong people. At any rate, congrats to Apple for topping the list (for the second year in a row), and we can't wait to see what's new in the next year.

Consumer Reports continues to shower praise on all things Apple it seems. In a report in the June issue, the Magazine says Apple won the top three places in the 13 inch laptop derby. The unibody MacBook was in first place, followed by the MacBook Air, with the white plastic MacBook in a solid third place.

CR also named the 15-inch MacBook Pro as top laptop in the 14- to 16-inch group, and the 17-inch MacBook Pro walked off with the honors in the 17- to 18-inch category. The HP Pavilion publicized in the first Laptop Hunters ad from Microsoft came in 4th in the category behind Dell and Lenovo laptops. The Sony VAIO FW370 that was the star of the 3rd Microsoft ad came in 5th in the 14- to 16-inch category.

Apple also took the honors for best in tech support.

This won't bring smiles to the folks in Redmond, who are going all out to convince people that Apple computers are not a good value. It should be noted that none of the Apple laptops were rated a best buy, but they all scored the highest in each category and were recommended by the magazine. Of course Apple has repeatedly said they are not trying to win on price, but on quality, and Consumer Reports seems to accept that as the case.

I generally don't put a lot of stock in CR for some of its testing, but these high ratings for Apple laptops are just one of a continuing chorus of approval from the press and generally happy Mac owners.

Given all the other good publicity the iPhone has been getting, it won't come as any great surprise that the J.D. Power survey released today says:

Apple ranks highest among smartphone manufacturers with a score of 791, performing particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features and physical design. LG (772) and Samsung (759) follow Apple in the rankings.

Other interesting findings are that smartphone users send an average of 17 emails a day, and 82 percent report that they use things like address books and to-do lists to stay better organized.

The survey included 2,648 smartphone users who owned their phone for less than 2 years. In general, smartphone users are increasingly satisfied with their purchase, compared to prior surveys. Users queried listed these attributes they wanted in a smartphone, in order of desirability: ease of operation, operating system, features, physical design and battery function.

While the economy continues to tank, and desktop PC purchases are falling, a new survey from ChangeWave Research says Apple customers are the happiest buyers. Looking at people who bought a computer in the last 90 days, 81% said they were very satisfied with their purchase. That compares with 67% high satisfaction from Asus, Dell is at 55%, HP at 52%, and Toshiba at 52%. Only 50% of Lenovo buyers were very satisfied. Ouch.

Apple buyers plans to get a new laptop have increased 3% since the January survey. Plans to buy a desktop have declined by 2%.

Other survey highlights reflect similar opinions to Apple buyers. People buying brands other than Apple still want laptops, while interest in desktops continues to sink. There is also continuing interest in netbooks, and many Apple owners in the survey said they considered the iPhone to be a form of netbook.

The report also notes that overall consumer electronics spending is at the lowest level since ChangeWave began their research in 2002.

If you'd like to see a PDF of the complete survey results click here.

Apple is now asking users of the Apple TV product to take a survey "in an effort to improve [the] Apple TV." According to Mac Rumors, new Apple TV owners were told about this data collection. In an email sent to various users, Apple gives us the following details about the survey:

"Please take a few minutes to complete this survey to help us understand how you use your Apple TV. Your responses will remain completely confidential and results will be viewed only in aggregate. We value and appreciate your input."

The survey takes a few minutes to complete, and provides users the ability to give their full input in the form of a text box. You can take the survey by clicking here.

Update: Apparently Apple is experiencing a heavy server load and the survey site is being very unresponsive or not at all responsive at this time.

Thanks for the tip, Zack!

A survey by ChangeWave says Apple is looking ahead to record sales for Macs, which smiles in the face of further declines in U.S. consumer spending. The survey polled 4,416 people between August 4 and August 12.

If the poll is any indication, Apple will do well in the next three months, with 34 percent of respondents planning on buying a new Mac laptop, and 30 percent planning on buying a new Mac desktop. It's unclear how many of those overlap (that is, people who want to buy both). That's a modest uptick since last month -- two percent more for laptops and three percent more for desktops.

Compare that to general consumer electronics spending: 15 percent said they'd spend more over the next three months, while 34 percent said they'd spend less. That's almost unchanged since last month, but 13 points lower since August last year.

Also in the survey, 17 percent of the respondents (who own an iPhone 3G) are now more likely to buy a Mac in the future; one percent said they were less likely.

[Via MacsimumNews.]