A new report reveals that Apple’s iMessage as well as other data-based messaging apps, reportedly caused the first drop in U.S. text messaging in years, and the downward trend may continue as more wireless subscribers switch to smartphones. Apparently users are sending 678 texts per month, down from 696 texts per month for the previous quarter, a trend that seems to be continuing overtime.
As noted by The New York Times, the decline may seem small but is still noteworthy as the amount of SMS text messages has seen continuous growth up to this point. The change puts the U.S. in line with most western markets, which have experienced texting revenue declines as more subscribers have switched to data-based messaging.
Unlike texts, which come bundled with cellular service subscriptions, apps such as Apple’s iMessage and Facebook’s Messenger use data, which can amount to considerably less cost due depending on the data plan chosen. An example of this would be smartphone users who have unlimited data. These users can basically do away with texting completely as long as the people they are messaging have compatible data-based apps. Mobile analyst, Chetan Sharma said it’s too early to estimate whether the texting market will continue to decline for U.S. carriers, but he did note that data-based messaging has slowly been replacing conventional messaging as the number of smartphone users rises.
The possible decline of texting doesn’t necessarily mean a decline in earnings for U.S. telecoms, however, Sharma did note that of the top three carriers, some 45% of revenue per customer is made from mobile data accounts.
Have you noticed yourself using data-based messaging apps instead of text messages recently?
Source: Chetan Sharma, The New York Times
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