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Video chatting, one of the few data features of a iPhone that involves talking, doesn't look so appealing in the coming data-centric future. With the new iOS 6 operating system, Apple will now let users FaceTime chat over data networks, something they only could do over Wi-Fi before. That's one quick way users can burn through their monthly data allotment.
With the end of the phone approaching, as both smartphone owners and wireless carriers put more emphasis on data and less on voice, this move, at first, sounded like a savior for the phone as a talking device. But, it looks like even this auditory feature is in danger, since, as The Wall Street Journal's Thomas Gryta points out, video chatting will cost users a ton of their precious data. "According to one analyst's estimate, those on a data plan that offers a single gigabyte per month could use up the allotment by making just one five-minute call a day on FaceTime," Gryta writes. Considering all the other data drains iPhones have, there's no way FaceTime will be used widely. So, yet again, we're left with a device we don't use much for talking, making it increasingly nonsensical to call these things phones.