iMessage: before and after

My friend Christine recently posted a tweet on the topic of SMS usage in a post-SMS, iMessage/ WhatsApp/Weixin/GroupMe world. Curious how the launch of iMessage affected my own SMS use, I pulled my SMS messaging history dating back to May 2011. Apple launched iMessage on October 12, 2011 with the release of iOS 5, so this data set includes SMS usage for the 5.5 months preceding launch and 10.5 months since. Below are the data, which show the total number of SMS messages I’ve sent and received each day. Note: these data include SMS messages only, and not iMessages [1].

Before iMessage, I sent or received 12,906 SMS messages over 164 days, which equates to a mean of 78.7 SMS messages per day.

After iMessage, I sent or received 7,762 SMS messages over 327 days, which equates to a mean of 23.7 SMS messages per day.

That corresponds to a decline of 70% in my SMS usage. Of course, the total number of messages I’ve sent and received (SMS messages + iMessages) has likely remained unchanged (or perhaps increased), but at the time of this writing I was not able to find a readily available, reliable data source for the number of iMessages I’ve sent and received (working on it!).

Collectively, these SMS messages would have cost me $4,133.60 had I paid for them on a per-use basis. Instead, I paid AT&T $320 ($20 per month) over this period for unlimited SMS messaging [2].

UPDATE
11.12.2012 – The New York Times today cited a report that shows SMS usage has declined in the United States for the first time. I think we know why.

[1] In this post, I’ve referred to what many might consider “traditional” text messaging as “SMS messaging”. Given that SMS stands for “Short Message Service”, “SMS messaging” might read a bit awkward when interpreted as “Short Message Service messaging”. In any case, it seems prudent to reserve “text messaging” for references to all forms of messaging using text (SMS, iMessage, GroupMe, and yes, even email) with “SMS messages” referring to those text messages which fly to and fro AT&T’s magical towers as “Text Messages” in my monthly Wireless Statement. I am sorry if this offends anyone.

[2] Plus tax.