To text or not to text?
Those who text text a lot. But the surprising-to-me news is that most Americans don’t text at all.
The New York Times reports this week that 82 percent of cellphone owners surveyed said that they never used text messaging, 3 percent said that they used it monthly or less, and 15 percent said that they used it every week or even more.
This is timely news to consider as we await Friday’s arrival of the Apple iPhone 3G, because in addition to adding a $30/month data plan (up from $20) to your typical cell-phone contract, you’d be smart to budget for your text messaging — make that UNLIMITED text messaging.
Unless you’re one of those 82 percent who don’t text at all.
AT&T offers a $5/month plan for up to 200 messages, and $20 for unlimited messages. (Previously, 200 messages/month came free.)
So while Apple gets a lot of praise for the great $199 price tag on the iPhone 3G, the $10 increase for the data plan and the $20 more for the unlimited texting (those who text text a lot, remember?) wipes out those “savings” pretty quick.
I never thought of myself as a heavy text-messenger. But I do roll past 200 in about 3 weeks. Then again, I don’t have email on my current Nokia.
And I understand that, gee wiz, you can also make phone calls and talk to someone with the iPhone.
Stay tuned.
