Pandora for iPhone will be a huge hit

Pandora for iPhone will be a huge hit
I've never had this conversation about Last.fm, or iLike, or Imeem, or any other online music service. For whatever reason, Pandora seems to have hit a nerve with my demographic, just like MySpace did with teens and twentysomethings about two years ago.In other words, Pandora's perfectly poised for a big mainstream bump. And the iPhone version, covered here by CNET's Donald Bell, is the necessary catalyst. Once the early adopters have gotten through the queue, I think the iPhone will appeal mostly to this same audience. Thirtysomething professionals who are interested in but not obsessed with technology will find the iPhone to be the first phone that actually lets them do things they want to do without requiring a certified geek to show them how. (Example: snapping a decent-quality photo and e-mailing it from the phone. Doing that from my Verizon-enabled Razr is not easy, and the pictures suck. My neighbor did it from his new iPhone in five seconds.)Pandora on the iPhone is attractive, intuitive, and offers an obvious tangible benefit--great music at no charge. Plus, if you just have to own a song, you can buy it from iTunes with one click (if you have an active Wi-Fi connection). Pandora is already available for selected other phones, but there it costs a few bucks per month after a free trial. Plus, none of those other phones have the mainstream brand-name appeal of the iPhone. The only question is the money--once Pandora on the iPhone takes off, how will Pandora make money from it? I'm hoping they don't ruin the appeal of the service with overly intrusive advertising.