According to The New York Times, cell phone owners are using their phones less, despite the continuous growth in cell phone adoption as land lines decline, for voice calls and instead are turning to their phones more for added features, such as text messages, Internet, and other data-centric applications. According to the Times, “And for the first time in the United States, the amount of data in text, e-mail messages, streaming video, music and other services on mobile devices in 2009 surpassed the amount of voice data in cellphone calls, industry executives and analysts say.”

Now, cell phone voice data accounts for less than half the traffic handled by wireless cellular towers, with text messages and Internet data comprising the over fifty percent of traffic.

With the growth of email, Twitter, and messaging–highlighted by devices driven by new media such as Microsoft’s KIN and the Palm Pre–devices selected by users will mirror their usage patterns: “Still, even the telephone design industry has taken note. Ross Rubin, a telecommunications analyst with the NPD Group, said cellphones outfitted with numerical keyboards — easiest for quickly dialing a phone number — were no longer in vogue. Touch screens, or quick messaging devices with full “qwerty” keyboards, on the other hand, are. On the newest phones, users must press several buttons or swipe through several screens to get to the application that allows them to make calls.”

The industry is predicting that rather than charging voice minutes in the future with data add-ons, the reverse may become reality as usage patterns skew towards data. In this way, users will be charged by data buckets, perhaps with voice add-ons.

According to Good magazine editor Zach Frechette, voice is secondary to data because he has an iPhone and claims that it’s better to communicate via data because of spotty reception in Los Angeles.

Frechette’s case begs the question if growing data use is propelled by technologies that are becoming more pervasive–such as faster mobile broadband coupled with social media becoming more ubiquitous–or if it’s really driven by faulty cellular reception. Perhaps Microsoft’s KIN really nailed it–that like Rsa, many of our friends only exist online to whom we don’t have any further contact information.

(via: NYT)