The figures from the survey report one serious misconception about who the top 1% really are. Over 50% of the people surveyed believed that an individual had to make at least one million dollars to be in the top 1%. According to the IRS, the number is actually quite lower. To be in the top 1% of American wage earners you only need to make about $350,000 a year.

Of course most of us believe the 1% is living the high-life. 73% believe the 1% all have more than one home. 60% are under the impression that these folks are flying around in private jets or at the very least, always traveling first class (63%). 63% also believe that the top 1% take overseas vacations once a year or more. Almost 80% of people thought that the upper 1% employed in-house gardeners and cooks.

Almost everyone from the survey agreed that the 1% is mostly composed of financial executives, entrepreneurs, politicians, lobbyists or people that have inherited a business. Almost no one thought that education, real estate, law, or medical professions were a path to the 1%. Less than 2% thought that the richest Americans worked harder than anyone else.

While only 60% of the people reported feeling that the rich don’t pay enough in tax, 3% reported that they were in-fact, part of the top 1%. I think that’s really interesting; they believe you need to make at least a million to be in the club, but 30 people from the survey report they are the top 1%. So we can safely guess that their were a fair amount of millionaires participating in the survey. I wonder how that skews the results?

Regardless of what they said about the richest 1%, almost 65% agreed that they would like to be part of the group. I think that’s a no-brainer. Would you like more money?

SodaHead.com is the world’s largest opinion based community and its recent survey found that 70 percent of those responding to the poll were not in favor of Timeline; they voted that Facebook “lose it”.

Only 20 percent of those polled were in favor of the Timeline and a very small 10 percent claimed to not use Facebook at all.

The poll found users between the ages of 18 and 24 like Timeline and only a finite 10 percent of users 65 and over thought the change was “neat”. Broken into genders, men and women had exactly the same opinion. 77 percent dislike it, while 23 percent like it.

In countries like India and Brazil Facebook is growing drastically; the poll found users outside of America are more welcoming of the new Timeline.

Facebook experienced a drop in traffic, but thanks to foreign traffic the social media network is still growing and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Over two-thirds of likely U.S. voters (67%) responded that they viewed the downloading of content without paying for it as theft. Fifteen percent weren’t sure, and 18% said it was not. In that case, a law designed to curb online piracy should be a good thing, right? Not so, according to the survey. While most agree that piracy is theft, even more respondents – 71% – answered that they felt that internet censorship was a greater threat than piracy.

This survey suggests that voters agree with what SOPA’s opponents have been saying all along: piracy is bad, and something should be done about it, but neither SOPA nor PIPA is the something that should be done. A good anti-piracy solution is necessary, but censoring the internet is not the way to go about it.

IDG Connect recently conducted a survey that said that 91% of business professionals use an iPad more for business communication than personal communication.

IDG says that their own survey of U.S. consumers found that 60 percent of iPads never leave the home, and 70 percent of usage occurs in the living room.

On the contrary, 51 percent of IT professionals were found to always use their iPad at work. A further 40 percent said that they sometimes use it at work. 79 percent said that they always used their iPads on the move.

Only 54 percent of IT professionals use their iPad at home. Even then only 31 percent said they only use their iPad for entertainment, and only 42 percent said they use it for personal communication.

The iPad hasn’t caused many people to abandon their other devices though. Only 12 percent of IT and business professionals said that the iPad has completely replaced their laptop. Only six percent said that it replaced their PC.

That doesn’t mean that it’s affecting usage of these devices though. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed said that they carry their laptop around less. Over half said that the iPad has partly replaced their laptop. IT professionals in the Middle East and Asia are more likely to use their iPad more than other regions.

The iPad is disrupting traditional mediums with users moving to digital meida. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed have said that they hardly buy newspapers anymore. Half say that they are less likely to buy films on DVD.

IT and business professionals use the iPad in interesting ways with 79 percent using it for web browsing. Seventy-six percent use it for reading and 73 percent use it for news consumption. Fifty-four percent use it for work communication while only 42 percent use it for personal communication.

Loyalty to Apple is also high as only 17 percent of those surveyed would consider buyiny a different tablet next time.

As to ownership, three-quarters of respondents purchases their iPads privately. Only one-quarter were supplied with an iPad by an employer.

The survey then breaks down the usage by country for more detailed specifics. For those interested, the full report is here.

The report found many interesting trends about both groups and how they embrace technology. For instance, according to the survey, 41 percent of LinkedIn members are planning to spend at least $1,000 on consumer electronics this year. The general public, however, is a little more hesitant, since 29 percent said they were planning to spend that much on consumer electronics during the year.

How much (if any) do you plan to spend on new innovations and gadgets this year? Let us know.

As far as trends go, LinkedIn members are much more tech savvy in both travel and mobile than the general U.S. public. The survey found that LinkedIn members are 53 percent more likely than the average U.S. adult to have Bluetooth in their car, and 31 percent more apt to have some form of GPS device. In addition, 51 percent of LinkedIn members are more likely to own or use a smartphone as opposed to the average adult in the U.S.

Tablet devices are consistent with this trend as well with 85 percent more prone to own or use one. Despite all the tablet devices that are available, most of the users said they were iPad users.

What’s interesting is that LinkedIn members are not just interested in gadgets for fun and games. On the contrary, 93 percent of them rely on technology for managing various aspects of their lives, compared to 89 percent of the general online population. LinkedIn members also said productivity and efficiency are the most important qualities of consumer electronics for them.

While television and newspapers influence the general online U.S. population, they are less likely to impact the shopping decisions of LinkedIn members. Instead, they seek recommendations through social networks. However, both the general public and LinkedIn members believe that companies should have a social media presence, weighing in with 75 percent and 82 percent respectively.

Even though the LinkedIn members surveyed are seemingly wealthier than the general population, with 49 percent having households of $100K or more, this report still offers insights into user trends. What’s more is it could especially help companies market their new innovations through the right channel to meet their target audience.

In almost every country surveyed the majority of the population owned a mobile phone – the lone exception was Pakistan, where ownership is at 48%, though the percentage in several countries was less than 60%. The country with the highest percentage of mobile phone ownership was Spain, at 96%, while in the US 85% of the population owns a mobile phone. In most of these countries, ownership was highest among younger age groups, or those with higher levels of education. College graduates and people under the age of 30 were most likely to have a phone.

In addition to mobile phone ownership, the survey also examined the most common uses of mobile phones in each country: voice, text, picture/video, and internet usage. As should probably be expected, the vast majority of mobile phone users in every country use their phones for voice calls. Several countries clocked in at 100% voice usage. Nearly every other country was in the 90s, with the exception of Germany and Britain, where just 82% and 87% of phone owners use their devices for voice calling, respectively.

As might be expected, texting is the second most common activity among mobile phone users. Though the numbers for text usage are not as high as voice usage, still in most countries the majority of mobile phone owners text. Only in India (49%) and Pakistan (44%) do fewer than half use their phones for text. In the US 67% of phone owners text, while the highest percentage is in Indonesia, where a whopping 96% of people who have mobile phones use the for texting.

Results for picture and video usage were consistently lower than voice and text usage, though they showed a wide disparity in results from country to country. While most results were in the 40s or 50s, some were in the 20s and 30s. Pakistan scored lowest: only 9% of Pakistanis use their phones to send pictures or texts. Meanwhile, in Japan fully 72% of mobile phone owners use them for taking pictures or video. Mexico is in seocnd place with 61%, while the US is tied with Israel for third place at 57%.

Mobile internet usage figures were consistently lower than picture and video usage, and were similarly varied. The authors of the study speculate that the difference stems from the widely varied availability of internet access in the surveyed countries. Unlike other usage categories, in no surveyed country do a majority of mobile phone owners use their phones In the US 43% of mobile phone owners use their phones to access the internet, while 47% each of Israeli and Japanese phone owners do the same. Pakistan again had the lowest score, at 6%. The survey does not appear to have differentiated between those who own smartphones and those who do not.

The study also examined (separately) social networking usage among adults. In this section the results are broken down according to those who have internet access and those who do not. The highest percentage of social network use is in the US and Israel, where 50% and 53%, respectively, of all adults are members of social media networks. While usage tends to drop considerably in some countries, the primary reason is a lack of internet access. In almost every country surveyed a considerable majority of internet users were also social network users. For example, while 19% of the population of Kenya use social networking, only 26% of the population even has internet access. That means that 73% of Kenyan internet users are members of social networks.

As mentioned above, the study found significant differences in mobile phone and social network use between age groups and education levels. The young and the more educated are far more likely in every country to own mobile phones and to participate in social networking. The study found almost no difference in usage between genders, however. The notable exceptions being Spain, Germany, and Turkey.

The question is, was the wool removed from the public’s eye with enough time to act against SOPA, or should we simply be resigned to the fate that the United State government is in a position, provided SOPA survives becoming an actual law, to wield a level of control over the content of the Internet, one it was never intended to have, all to pacify the entertainment industry. SOPA’s existence really doesn’t go beyond that. If the entertainment behemoths pulled their support for SOPA and embraced the concept of file sharing with open arms, or, conversely, agreed with tech industry in the belief the bill gives too much power to those that wield it, the act would fall apart like a house of cards.

Here’s something very telling about SOPA and its sponsors. Recently, Lamar Smith, one of the Republican representatives from the state of Texas, and one of SOPA’s most visible sponsors, was quoted as saying, “I’m not a technical expert on this,” but yet, there’s Smith, foolishly attempting to take Google’s representative to task with an incredibly ignorant offering that says:

…one of the companies represented here today has sought to obstruct the Committee’s consideration of bipartisan legislation. Perhaps this should come as no surprise given that Google just settled a federal criminal investigation into the company’s active promotion of rogue websites that pushed illegal prescription and counterfeit drugs on American consumers.

Smith’s ignorance would be laughable if it wasn’t so potentially harmful to the Internet’s existence, but yet, there he is, trying his hardest to regulate the content of the Internet.

Smith, while being wholly ignorant of how Google operates its search engine index, also apparently ignores the wishes of the American people as well. In an ongoing study conducted by The American Assembly project at Columbia University, some of their early findings have been made available, and because of them, it’s pretty clear the events surrounding SOPA do not reflect the attitudes of the people it’s designed to govern.

Some highlights are upcoming, but I urge you to read the incredibly revealing study and the initial findings. It’s pretty clear the times and the attitudes of the people have changed:

• “Piracy” is common. Roughly 46% of American adults have bought pirated DVDs, copied files or discs from friends or family, or downloaded music, TV shows or movies for free.* These practices correlate strongly with youth and moderately with higher incomes
• Only 1% of Americans are heavy pirates of TV/movie content (i.e. possess more than 100 movies or TV
  shows and copied or downloaded most or all of them)
• Console-based video game piracy on any scale is rare. 48% of households surveyed owned game consoles (Xbox, Playstation). Of these, roughly 3% (1.5% overall) have consoles that have been modified to play pirated games. Of this 3%, 55% were modified at time of purchase and 33% by the owners. We did not inquire about PC or mobile games

Aside: So much for Sony’s reasoning for locking down the PS3… Other highlights include:

• Copyright infringement among family and friends is widely accepted. Substantial majorities of Americans say it is “reasonable” to share music files with family members (75%) and friends (56%). For movie/TV files: 70% and 54% respectively
• Only a slim majority of Americans (52%) say “people should face punishment if they download an unauthorized copy of a song or movie from a website or file-sharing service.” 34% are opposed to penalties altogether; 7% say it depends on the circumstances; 7% did not answer
• This support is limited to warnings and fines.
• Even among those who support fines, 75% support amounts under $100 for downloading a song or movie. “Less than $10” attracted 32% support; “$11 to $100” attracted 43%. This contrasts sharply with U.S. copyright law, where the statutory penalty for willful infringement runs to $150,000 per act. Fine in this range were supported by less than 1% of Americans.

As for the crux of SOPA, that is, should the government and/or the entertainment industry be allowed to block online material, the respondents are pretty unanimous in their lack of support:

American Internet users (79%) have strong views about whether corporations or the government should monitor their Internet use “in order to prevent copyright infringement.” A large majority (69%) said no. 27% responded yes or sometimes. 3% did not know. Attitudes are softer when asking whether ISPs should “block access to sites that provide access to pirated songs and videos.” A 58% majority responded yes to this question, with 36% opposed. When asked if the government should block access, that majority vanishes (40% yes; 56% no).

The report also indicates that when the word in the survey was changed from “block” to “censor,” support diminished even further. Even though people were more comfortable with ISPs blocking infringing users, when the word becomes a precursor to censorship, support for ISP blocking reduces as well. According to the report, with these parameters, only 46% said yes, and 49% said no.

There’s a handy graph that helps put the study’s current findings in perspective. Click it for a larger version:

Do you hope to be one of the first consumers to purchase an iPhone 5? Let us know.

A survey from online shopping website PriceGrabber added to this perception when it found that more than one third of consumers (35%) planned to buy the new iPhone as soon as it comes out. The study surveyed over 2,800 consumers and discovered that 7 percent of the respondents said they would purchase it within the first week, 14 percent within the first month, and 51 percent within the first year.

“There’s always buzz around the iPhone release, and our survey found that consumers are really looking to stay up to date with the latest trends,” said James Brown, the Senior Director of Merchant Accounts with PriceGrabber.

The study also looked at what consumers want in the iPhone 5 in terms of features and functions. As Brown explained to us, consumers desire “practicality” above all else. Respondents would like to see increased battery life, lower costs, 4G network compatibility, larger screen size, and an improved camera.

Another interesting finding from the survey revealed that consumers are using their smartphones to enhance their offline shopping experience. They are using their mobile devices to do comparison shopping, to find local deals through geo-location apps, and to also take advantage of daily deals in their area.

“Online consumers aren’t just at home anymore, they’re out and about; and, more importantly, they’re using their smartphone technology to really aid them in their shopping experience,” said Brown.

With mobile devices getting smarter, the competition between Apple and Google is getting stronger as well. Google is said to dominate the mobile market with its Android devices, but Piper Jaffray Analyst Gene Munster recently projected that the iPhone 5 could double Apple’s market share, which would put it back on top.

Do you see the iPhone 5 giving Apple the extra leverage it needs to dominate the mobile market?

According to the findings, which were taken from a survey size of 4,163 consumers, 46 percent of new smartphone buyers are going to be looking Apple’s way, thanks to iOS. Considering the proliferation of the iPhone, the news doesn’t come as a surprise, although, when compared to the growth of the Android, such a high percentage is perhaps eye-opening. Recent reports by comScore show that, in the United States, Android devices actually outnumber the iPhone in regards to device web traffic.

Nevertheless, ChangeWave’s findings indicate more people still want iPhones when it comes time to purchase a new smartphone. Apparently, satisfaction ratings come into play here, as the reported data shows 70 percent of iOS users are “very satisfied,” compared to the 50 percent mark for Android users. Further findings reveal Apple’s upcoming iCloud service plays a part in piquing the interest of potential consumers:

We took a close-up look at the potential impact of the iCloud service going forward, and found 29% of Apple product owners say Apple’s iCloud announcement makes them More Likely to buy Apple products in the future, as do 13% of Non-Apple owners. This initial look at the impact of Apple’s new iCloud service shows it enhancing existing customer loyalty. But the survey also provides highly encouraging signs that iCloud will generate additional customer demand for other Apple products, not only from current Apple product owners but from a substantial numbers of non-owners as well.

Considering the amount of those surveyed who indicated they would purchase a device with iOS, it should come as no surprise that 48 percent also indicated that, if buying a new smartphone in the next 90 days, the iPhone will be the choice. While the future looks incredibly profitable for Apple, thanks to their mobile device success, Blackberry makers RIM find their levels of customer satisfaction plummeting.

ChangeWave’s information indicates RIM device satisfaction is down to 27%, a shocking level considering the past successes of the Blackberry device. Perhaps executive attitudes have something to do with such low results.

What is your most important social networking account? Let us know.

“The Impact of Social Media,” or “S-Net” as the report is being called, is part of a series of studies that Performics is doing to understand the importance and influence of social media. Daina Middleton, the CEO of the company, told us that the economic challenges added to this spike of activity on LinkedIn.

“Obviously, we have a lot of individuals out there looking for jobs, or they’re looking to change jobs; and they’re understanding that they need to embrace social networks like LinkedIn in order to help facilitate that search,” she said.

While Facebook and Twitter are extremely popular for both personal and professional reasons, the line between these purposes is becoming more and more blurred. Middleton pointed out that LinkedIn, on the other hand, is clearly professional, which has helped to make it vital during the tough economic times.

The study further proved the shift in power from brands to consumers. Previously, brands could send out a print or TV ad and, primarily, be in control of the message. Middleton said that there was a “hierarchy implied in terms of this message development.”

Today, however, this cycle has changed, largely due to social media. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn allow users to be equal. As a result, consumers have the ability to influence fellow consumers and brands in a way that is likely greater than a brand’s own influence.

The study found that 59 percent of active Twitter users are more apt to recommend a company they follow, and 58 percent would be more likely to buy a product from a company they follow. In addition, 53 percent use social networks to offer feedback about a brand or retailer. The study also found that 52 percent of those surveyed agreed that consumer opinions voiced on social networking sites influence business decisions.

Middleton believes the report demonstrates the power of social media and encourages brands to embrace this shift in power and communication. She said, “Brands need to understand that the goal here is to get others to participate with them on that equal status.”

Do you think brands are effectively encouraging equal participation?