The Wall Street has an article on Getty Images attempts to its online presence (7 day free link):

Getty, which sells the rights to images to major advertisers and publications, seeks to boost sales from sources outside its high-resolution photos and capitalize on the growing ease of Web image posting.

The Seattle company's turnaround began in February 2006 when it purchased iStockphoto, a site for inexpensive photo licenses. Getty continued to implement the new strategy through the end of 2007, when it began offering low-resolution images from its entire collection for Web use at a rate of $49 for multiple uses.

The article also cites the low barrier to entry for start-ups to offer competing products and services as the iStockphoto site. I also wonder what effects of social networks combined with modern copyright licensing (E.g Flickr creative commons image search) have on iStockphoto services.