Text Messaging Falls For The First Time In The U.S.

For the first time in the United States, the average number of monthly texts sent by each user fell this past quarter. That's according to a report by independent telecommunications analyst Chetan Sharma. U.S. cell phone customers sent an average of about 675 messages per month in the third quarter, down from around 700 per month in the prior quarter.

The drop in the amount of text messages is in relation to the fact that many Americans are carrying internet connected smartphones in their pockets. More than half of cell phones in use in the United States are smartphones and dozen of their applications offer free text messaging services. That allows wireless customers to send and receive texts by piggybacking on their existing data plans. That means people who download those apps, such as Microsoft's Skype are able to bypass the expensive texting plans offered by wireless companies.

I am known at the radio station to have the 'world's oldest cell phone', so all this talk of smartphones and apps are very foreign to me! I also thought that 675 texts per month to be a very high number. How often do you text?