An Hour and 14 Minutes on Apple.com? Wow. Try Spending That on Dell’s Web Site Without Falling Asleep.

Here’s an interesting metric: Apple’s Web site last month drew more than 55.7 million unique visitors, more than the site of any other computer hardware manufacturer, according to a report released this week by Nielsen Online. The number of Apple (AAPL) visitors was more than double that of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), which drew 21.9 million people, and triple Dell’s (DELL), which drew 16.8 million. May visitors to Apple’s Web site spent an average of an hour and 14 minutes on it.

Not much of a surprise here, I suppose, given the level of anticipation that typically accompanies the release of a new iPhone. Nielsen says “anticipatory buzz” for the iPhone 3GS was near-deafening. “The new iPhone 3G S sent blog mentions up 1,226 percent week-over-week on June 8, the day of the announcement. After the initial announcement, buzz dipped but again picked up after the phone became available to consumers on June 19, with blog mentions more than doubling compared to the week prior.” The chart, below (click to enlarge):