How much do you text?

The QWERTY keyboard on the Blitz is made for texting

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

On September 10, CTIA reported that American cell-phone subscribers are sending more text messages than ever despite the rising cost. About 75 billion SMS text messages were sent in June alone, according to the report. Of course, texting is only a relatively recent boom here in the U.S.--people from Europe and Asia have been sending and receiving text messages for years, most likely due to the low cost of texting over there.

With that in mind, many manufacturers are racing each other to develop messaging-centric phones with full QWERTY keyboards, but that aren't smart phones. The recently released Verizon Wireless Blitz has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and at CTIA this past week, Sprint announced the LG Lotus, which has a fold-out QWERTY keyboard. Samsung also announced the Samsung Rant, a slider device reminiscent of the LG Rumor, both of which have hidden QWERTY keyboards.

But will these devices be popular among frequent texters? I know several of my friends who learned to type out text messages with a 12-number keypad via T9, and claim that they actually text more slowly with a QWERTY keyboard. I hear the same thing with a lot of teenagers and tweens who've never used a phone with a QWERTY keyboard, and find texting with T9 easier. For those who are newer to texting though, I can see QWERTY phones like this being a big hit.

How about you, dear readers? Are you on the texting bandwagon? If so, how much do you text? Are you on an unlimited text-message plan, or do you opt for the cheaper ones? And would you be interested in any of these new messaging phones that aren't smart phones? Let us know in the comments below.