American teenagers send an average of 10 text messages per hour they are not in school or sleeping. By analyzing more than 40,000 monthly US mobile bills, in Nielsen new study determined American teens sent an average of 3,146 texts a month each during Q3 2009. Their counterparts 9-12 sent an average of 1,146 monthly texts each, or four per hour not spent asleep or in school. In comparison, the average number of monthly texts sent by all mobile users combined was a little more than 500. In Q4 2009, users 9-12 increased text usage by 8% and almost doubled their text message volume.

Text Costs Typically Remain Low
There has been a lot of discussion regarding the cost of texting, mainly driven by the increasing individual per message price. Looking at the same bill panel we can see that only a very small percentage of people who text message are doing so on a pay-as-you-go basis at the 20 cent per message rate with the vast majority of users subscribing to plans. When we actually incorporate the effect that the significant uptake of messaging bundles has on the actual price that customers are paying for each text message, we find that wireless customers are actually paying only 1 penny per message.

The text messaging market in the United States is very similar to the newspaper or magazine market. For example, the Wall Street Journal's newsstand price is $2, but if you subscribe to the Journal, it is $119 per year--a whopping 80% discount. For People Magazine, the cover price is $3.99 while the annual subscription is 47% off at only $2.09 an issue, a great deal if you are subscribing. For text messaging, the discount is more than 95%, due to the heavy prevalence of large texting bundles. What is even more interesting is that from first quarter 2008 to third quarter 2009, the effective price of a text message has decreased by 47%.

After all the negative publicity that text messaging has received, a look at the facts is showing quite a different picture. When one takes into account usage, text messaging is very affordable and cheaper than ever before, especially when compared to various European countries where texting has been widespread for years. While U.S. carriers offer unlimited texting for between $10 and $20 per month (if it is not already bundled into the plan), not every country in Europe is as competitive as the United States. For example, Germany, the largest European market, wireless providers charge about €25 for between 300 text messages and 30 MMS and up to 3000 text messages per month.

Overall, text message usage is also expected to grow as the heavy text messaging population ages and entices the older generations to text with them in order to stay in contact with them as any parent of a teenager can probably attest to. The average text message number has increased every year, but the huge room for growth that is still remaining has been underestimated given the penchant for texting among the 17 and under segment.