[mattnewton]

I think it’s more that they were competing with “free” and pre-installed. By the time the apps launched, most US users were not being hit with sms fees that motivated them to look for the apps in the first place, and for the ones who did the data cost is so small I doubt users were really picking out the difference vs things like loading news websites with images. This is just a theory based on personal experience and I haven’t rigorously lined up dates to confirm it though.