Ricky at SMS Text News has posted on the realities of the U.S. cell phone market, as seen in the trenches. No mind-blowing news here, but if you have anything to do with mobile hardware, software, services or sales, you’d better check it out: you do need to know this.

It’s scary how many people make decisions knowing so very little about how people react to them.

“3. SMS/Data is bad because it only runs up your bill. The carriers really botched this one a few years ago when they first launched data services. By activating pay-per-use as the default, most consumers have had the unpleasant experience of the ’surprise bill’, which left a bad taste in their mouths. Add to that the fact that every handset has at least one shortcut key to the internet, and you can imagine that consumers dislike mobile data. 8 out of 10 people, when asked, “Would you like to go ahead and add a data package, as well?” reply “No, actually, I want you to disable everything but calling. Don’t want any surprise bills…” I wish the carriers would have offered people their first month free and unlimited, to give the customer a better idea of what their usage would be and offer customers a pleasant way to experience the mobile web and all it can do.”