This might seem like obvious news, but here in the U.S., most of us would rather type out our conversations than actually engage in a voice conversation, according to a new study. The International Smartphone Mobility Report compiled the interesting data from tracking firm Infomate.
"Our data reveals that most Americans love texting and would rather send a text than make a call," said Infomate CEO Will Hodgman, in a press statement.
Specifically, Infomate found that Americans average 26 minutes a day texting people they know instead of actually picking up the phone and dialing out. This number is about the same as spending six minutes a day actually talking on the phone.
Compared to other countries, Americans take the cake in terms of texting minutes. India, Thailand, Mexico and Brazil rely on chat or VoIP apps. The amount of time of texting combined in those areas is only a mere six minutes.
While we might have moved toward a more typing-centric society in terms of how we engage in conversation, there are still plenty of other options, like VoIP, that are inexpensive.
In the U.S., texting is rather cheap thanks to mobile carriers. But maybe we can revisit the whole idea of actually talking to each other, because VoIP is rather cheap, too. For some, it’s about circumventing the mobile carrier.
"Outside of this country, many of these chat VoIP services have built services within them so it's no longer about chat, it's about much more. They use Wi-Fi and they don't pay their mobile operator," said Hodgman.
As mobility has paved the way for newer services, and with the proliferation of mobile devices and savvier applications, why not ditch the text and look toward other services, like mobile VoIP?
Network providers are in constant battle to compete with consumer’s attraction to VoIP’s smart costs, and while text will likely be around to stay a while, for those who actually want to call and say hi to mom, there’s always VoIP.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson