Cell phone culture: How cultural differences affect mobile use

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/27/tech/mobile-culture-usage/index.html?iref=allsearch

Though this article is a few weeks old, I've been mulling it over to try to find the right way to phrase my reaction.  At first, everything in the article made sense - why wouldn't Americans be different than other cultures, especially when it comes to cell phone use? But the information at the very end confused me: "Texting was initially slow to take off in America....mobile internet has been slow on the uptake there as digital media tablets are becoming popular ways of going online."  I didn't really understand this part.  I can't even remember when people didn't text: my best friend got a Nokia phone in 5th grade and she could text (though no one else our age had a cell phone).  

The mobile internet comment also confused me.  Nearly everyone has a SmartPhone or an iPhone, or some other phone with internet access; hardly anyone can't go on the internet on their cell phones.  I also don't know that many people who own a tablet - all of our tablets with internet access seem to be relatively new, especially when compared to how long internet has been available on cell phones. The first iPhone came out at the beginning of 2007; the iPad wasn't released until 3 years later in the beginning of 2010 (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.#iPad).  These have been the most popular internet-capable phones and tablets in America and have led the markets, but there was still a large period of time when the iPhone gained popularity and its internet access drew in more consumers.

The majority of the article compare cultures based on how they view cell phone use.  It seems that Italy and Spain are very similar, Japan is the opposite, and America is somewhere in between.  We have a unique view of cell phone use that keeps us in constant communication with each other, and usually disregarding how other people around us feel about our cell phone use in their presence.