As the dust begins to settle after the announcement and launch of the new iPhone 3G, I wondered about who was actually interested in it.

With all the hype, there’s inevitably strong curiosity among iPhone researchers, so interest often isn’t necessarily indicating an intent to buy. Still, I thought that looking at this group’s behavior might provide some insight into who potential (possibly actual) customers are, and what types of marketing and applications might get their attention.

The chart below shows how much more likely iPhone researchers are to visit certain types of sites than other handset researchers in June (green bar) and July (orange bar).

• For both months, these iPhone researchers were most likely to visit blogging sites than the average handset researcher. In June they were 31% more likely to do this than the average handset researcher, and in July 20% more likely.
• Travel and tourism sites were also a popular destination for iPhone researchers during both months compared to the average handset researcher, and consistently took the number two spot.
• In July, iPhone researchers’ behavior, although still very different, began to look a little more like the behavior of the overall handset researching population, suggesting that the appeal and awareness of the device broadened to include more of the general population.

So, what does this mean? The average person who was checking out the iPhone online is more likely to have also been reading blogs and visiting travel sites.

As we learn more about consumer experiences with the iPhone, it will be interesting to see if these trends continue through the summer, when Best Buy begins to sell the device in September, and into the all-important holiday season.

If they do, it appears that blogs and travel sites could be the best places to advertise the iPhone, its accessories and applications. Applications focused on reading and filtering blogs and travel information could be among the most compelling applications to iPhone owners.

The iPhone has headlined industry news for the last 18 months, so it’s anyone’s guess what will happen in the next year and a half. But, by observing and acting upon this type of information, the device might experience a whole other level of popularity.

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