Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves released a note this morning with a bunch of data points showing the rising importance of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone in Internet usage. And he implies that the current value of the shares could be closer to $184 than the current $176.15 at which the stock trades.

Hargreaves writes that based on data from privately held Internet measurement firm Net Applications, of Viejo, Calif., the Safari Web browser shipped on the iPhone accounts for .3 percent of all world-wide Web surfing in August so far, double its share in June, prior to the introduction of the iPhone 3G. “iPhone’s rapid share gains in Internet usage suggest potential upside to current estimates,” writes Hargreaves, “and are a strong indicator of what we believe are lasting competitive advantages.” He goes on: “As Web-based software and services become more ingrained in our every-day working and personal lives, Apple’s emerging advantage in the mobile Internet will, in our view, become increasingly valuable.”

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The more things change, the more they stay the same: In May, Americans watched more hours of television than ever before, according to Nielsen.

In May, Nielsen reports, the average American watched 127 hours and 15 minutes of television, which comes to something just over 4 hours a day. That’s up 4 percent from 121 hours, 48 minutes in May 2007. There are some signs of change elsewhere in the data, however. Those figures include a jump in time-shifted TV to 5 hours, 50 minutes, from 3 hours, 44 minues, an increase of 56 percent. Average Internet usage increased to 26 hours, 26 minutes per month, up 9 percent from 24 hours, 16 minutes last May. The average American watched 2 hours, 19 minutes of video on the Internet in May; mobile video subscribers watched an average of 3 hours, 15 minutes on their devices in May. (Nielsen has no year-ago data on Internet video or mobile video.)

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