I reported on Monday about a survey of high school students who said they’d be willing to spend $500 on the iPhone.

Well, thanks to Andrew Kantor, I realize the survey results are not as big a deal as I thought.

Monday’s survey showed 25% of high school students were willing to pay iPhone’s premium price. What I left out was that that figure has dropped dramatically since last year, when 74 percent of students said they would buy a cell phone/iPod combo.

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In a Piper Jaffray survey of about 500 high school students in 11 schools around the U.S., 85 percent of teens said they were already aware of the iPhone.

Of those, 25 percent said they’d be willing to spend at the $500 entry point for Apple’s upcoming mobile phone.

Further, the study found that 82 percent of students who own a portable media player own an iPod. Sony comes in second with a distant 4 percent of students.

“Among high school students, it is clear that Apple is successfully carrying its brand from the media player market into the mobile phone space,” said senior analyst Gene Munster.

In a U.S. study of 379 people, most of whom own iPods and are familiar with the iPhone, respondents said they are not willing to pay $499/$599 for the iPhone, but would go as far as to switch mobile phone providers if the price drops.

Here’s the breakdown of responses:

• 26 percent of respondents said they’re likely to buy an iPhone at some point
• 6 percent of this 26 percent said they’d pay over $400 for it
• Only 1.8 percent of all respondents said they’re willing to pay $400+ for iPhone
• 38 percent of all respondents said they would be willing to spend over $200
• 58 percent of non-Cingular customers who were very likely to purchase an iPhone said they would switch from their current mobile provider

Will the iPhone price drop? Apple introduced Apple TV and said it would debut at $399, but it actually hit the market at $299. Some analysts say the iPhone price will drop, but it may happen only after early adopters grab their iPhones at $499/$599.

Just about all of you who’ve commented on the Cingular iPhone ad are highly skeptical. I don’t blame you.

You guys are right: the design is completely unprofessional. The fonts are off, the spacing is awkward. Hell, the iPhone prices don’t even match the previously stated prices, (although I did post a few weeks ago about some analysts’ predictions that the iPhone prices would drop).

Nevertheless, the “ad” - or whatever you want to call it - was part of a Pinecone consumer research survey. My guess is that someone put this together quickly perhaps because the focus was supposed to be on the content rather than the design.

I showed Gizmodo’s Brian Lam the Cingular ad and he said that “the changes are what are critical” and that the research is most likely “standard marketing to check the results of the shifts in pricing.”

Anyway, I don’t ever expect to see this design out anywhere. But I’m really crossing my fingers that Cingular keeps those iPhone prices and rate plans. I’m sure some of it depends on the reactions they receive to the consumer surveys.

More on the Cingular ad:

• Cingular iPhone Ad Leaked: Rate Plans Revealed
• Cingular Ad: More Proof for You Non-Believers

Here are some screenshots of the iPhone consumer survey with the Cingular ad (prototype?). The address at the top was cut-off to protect the source. The number at the bottom of the survey is supposedly the Pinecone survey number.

Click the images to see larger versions:

More on the Cingular ad:

• Cingular iPhone Ad Leaked: Rate Plans Revealed
• Cingular Ad: Why So Shoddy?